Impact of psychological state of patients undergoing radiation therapy during Corona virus pandemic outbreak in Mashhad, Iran in ۲۰۲۰

Since novel Corona virus was first described in ۲۰۱۹, the number of Corona virus cases has been rapidly increasing and has become a serious threat to human health worldwide.۱-۳ Concern for the influence of Corona virus on cancer patients has grown as sweeping infection rates continue to multiply. As reported in the guidelines for prevention or control of hospital infections, isolation has significant adverse effects on the behavior, mental health, satisfaction, and safety of inpatients. To investigate psychological state of hospitalized cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy and evaluate effects of customized psychological intervention on patients' psychological state during novel Corona virus outbreak. The one hundred hospitalized head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy were included and received online and offline psychological intervention. General information questionnaire and the Self-Report Symptom Inventory, Symptom Check-List۹۰ were utilized to investigate and analyze psychological state of hospitalized head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy before and after intervention. Self-Rating Depression Scale and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale were used to evaluate depression severity and anxiety severity of them. The result showed that the overall psychological state of patients was improved significantly after intervention additionally scores of SAS and SDS were lowered. For cancer patients, psychological intervention is recommended, and it is critical during the outbreak for hospitals and medical staff to employ developed systems assisting in maintaining patients as psychologically stable throughout the outbreak. Currently, many countries have established theories about psychological intervention against public health events, but there is a lack of unified technical standards. In the future, we need to increase the number of samples and follow-up from time to time to conduct more in-depth, detailed research.

Keywords:

Corona virus , psychological state , patients , Cancer , radiation therapy