Psychological Care of Oncology Patients With Post-traumatic Stress in the Context of a COVID-19

Overview

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns of the risk of infection may lead to fear, anxiety or psychological disorders that may become generalised and long-lasting, corresponding to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD generally occurs in circumstances such as terrorist attacks, hostage-taking, bombings, aggression, accidents... The current health crisis also represents an increased risk of PTSD. After the first moments of stress, the illness becomes more diffuse: personality change (introverted/extraverted), sleep disorders, heart problems, hypervigilance reaction, agoraphobia, symptoms of reminiscence, irritability, decreased concentration, memory loss... In some people, PTSD can lead to more disabling problems such as (crowd) avoidance. In order to help patients with PTSD, clinical psychology offers therapeutic approaches which, starting from a debriefing with the patient, provide supportive therapy which (i) reassures by providing information on the symptomatology, in order to play down the present state of mind, (ii) allows for the expression of what was experienced during the event, (iii) initiates a process of elaboration of the trauma through transference. A study initiated at the François Baclesse Centre during the first confinement, which included 735 patients from April to June 2020, made it possible to assess the impact of the pandemic linked to COVID-19 on the care of cancer patients treated in day hospitals, but also to evaluate the PTSD experienced by patients, sleep difficulties, quality of life, cognitive complaints and confinement conditions using validated questionnaires. This study showed that 21% of patients had proven PTSD and 23% had insomnia problem. This study proposes to evaluate the value of adapted psychological care for patients with PTSD in relation to the pandemic on the improvement of PTSD, as well as on resilience, quality of life and sleep.