AUTHOR=Bao Mei , Yang Sen , Gale Robert Peter , Zhang Yanli , Liu Xiaoli , Zhu Huanling , Liang Rong , Liu Bingcheng , Zhou Li , Li Zongru , Dou Xuelin , Shi Dayu , Wang Tao , Meng Li , Li Weiming , Jiang Qian 

TITLE=Mental Health in Persons With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: The Need for Increased Access to Health Care Services

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.679932

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.679932

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Mental health problems in general population has been reported during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, however, there were rare data in persons with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML).  Therefore, we performed a cross-sectional study on mental health evaluated using PHQ-9 (depression), GAD-7 (anxiety), and IES-R (distress) including sub-scales of avoidance, intrusion and hyper-arousal in persons with CML, non-cancer persons and immediate family members of persons with cancer as controls (≥ 16 years) by online survey.  Data from 3197 persons with CML and 7256 controls were collected.  In multi-variable analyses, CML was significantly-associated with moderate to severe depression (OR = 1.6; 95% Confidence Interval [CI], 1.4, 1.9; p < 0.001), anxiety (OR = 1.4 [1.1, 1.7]; p = 0.001), distress (OR = 1.3 [1.1, 1.5]; p < 0.001) and hyper-arousal (OR = 1.5 [1.3, 1.6]; p < 0.001).  Moreover, delays in regular monitoring was significantly-associated with depression (OR 1.3 [1.0, 1.7]; p = 0.024), anxiety (OR = 1.3 [1.0, 1.8]; p = 0.044), avoidance (OR = 1.2 [1.0, 1.4]; p = 0.017) and intrusion (OR = 1.2 [1.0, 1.4]; p = 0.057); tyrosine kinase-inhibitor dose reduction or discontinuation, depression (OR = 1.9 [1.3, 2.8]; p = 0.001), distress (OR = 2.0 [1.4, 2.8]; p < 0.001), avoidance (OR = 1.6 [1.2, 2.1]; p = 0.004), intrusion (OR = 1.6 [1.1, 2.1]; p = 0.006) and hyper-arousal (OR = 1.3 [1.0, 1.8]; p = 0.088).  We concluded that persons with CML during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have worse mental health including depression, anxiety and distress symptoms.  Decreasing or stopping monitoring or dose resulted in adverse mental health consequences.