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The COVID‐19 pandemic, which has affected a significant number of individuals worldwide, is generating serious mental health issues. Recovered COVID‐19 patients have experienced traumatic events related to their symptoms, isolation, possible hospitalization, bereavement, fear of infecting loved ones and the physical consequences of COVID‐19. One effective psychological treatment for these patients is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). The aim of this paper is to describe the therapeutic intervention and effects of EMDR in a pool of COVID‐19 survivors referred to an integrated psychological/psychiatric outpatient service. Twelve patients, comprising of nine males and three females, underwent EMDR psychotherapy from October 2020 to February 2022. Each patient received 8–16 weekly treatment sessions. The standard EMDR protocol of eight stages was administered to enable desensitization and reprocessing of four main targets: first positive swab, hospitalization, isolation and fear for relatives' health. Efficacy of EMDR was demonstrated by the significant improvement at clinical scale for subjective distress caused by traumatic events. For the therapists, carrying out these treatments was an intense and challenging experience. In fact, the perceived distance between therapist and patient was less defined than in other hospital settings because the pandemic affects everyone equally. However, with the widespread availability of vaccines and although the pandemic is still ongoing with the emergence of new variants, a window of improvement in the mental health landscape is starting to open up.

Background and aims:The COVID-19 pandemic represents a source of stress and potential burnout for many physicians. This single-site survey aimed at assessing perceived stress and risk to develop burnout syndrome among physicians operating in COVID wards.Methods: This longitudinal survey evaluated stress and burnout in 51 physicians operating in the COVID team of Gemelli Hospital, Italy.Participants were asked to complete the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Perceived Stress Questionnaire on a short run (PSQs) (referring to the past 7 days) at baseline (T0) and then for four weeks (T1-T4). Perceived Stress Questionnaire on a long run (PSQl) (referring to the past 2 years) was completed only at T0. Results:Compared with physicians board-certified in internal medicine, those boardcertified in other disciplines showed higher scores for the Emotional Exhaustion (EE) score of the MBI scale (P < .001). Depersonalisation (DP) score showed a reduction over time (P = .002). Attending physicians scored lower than the resident physicians on the DP scale (P = .048) and higher than resident physicians on the Personal Accomplishment (PA) scale (P = .04). PSQl predicted higher scores on the EE scale (P = .003), DP scale (P = .003) and lower scores on the PA scale (P < .001). PSQs showed a reduction over time (P = .03). Attending physicians had a lower PSQs score compared with the resident physicians (P = .04).

Background: The present narrative review aims to discuss cognitive–emotional–behavioral symptoms in adults with brain tumors at the time of diagnosis. Methods: The PubMed database was searched considering glioma, pituitary adenoma, and meningioma in adulthood as pathologies, together with cognitive, neuropsychological, or behavioral aspects. Results: Although a significant number of studies describe cognitive impairment after surgery or treatment in adults with brain tumors, only few focus on cognitive–emotional–behavioral symptoms at diagnosis. Furthermore, the importance of an effective communication and its impact on patients’ quality of life and compliance with treatment are seldom discussed. Conclusions: Adults with brain tumors have needs in terms of cognitive–emotional–behavioral features that are detectable at the time of diagnosis; more research is needed to identify effective communication protocols in order to allow a higher perceived quality of life in these patients.

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e21570 Background: Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy (NAC) is commonly recommended as a preoperative treatment for patients with locally advanced breast cancers (BC). However, several studies have shown that NAC can increase patients’ distress. A first aim of this study was to evaluate if BC patients treated with NAC show higher levels of distress as compared to patients undergoing primary surgery (PS). A secondary aim was to evaluate if distress could be significantly correlated with patients’ depression and anxiety, and if generalized self-efficacy (GSE) may moderate these relationships. Methods: one hundred and twenty-four BC patients (61 waiting for PS and 63 undergoing NAC), with a mean age of 51.64 (SD = 9.67), were instructed to complete a series of questionnaires evaluating socio-demographic data, anxiety, depression, distress and GSE. Results: An analysis of covariance was conducted, including treatment condition (NAC vs PS) as an independent variable, patients’ distress as a dependent variable, and age as a covariate. A significant mean difference emerged between groups [F(1, 121) = 5.66, p < .05)]. In particular, NAC patients showed a higher distress (Mean = 6.79) than PS ones (Mean = 5.72). Moreover, patients’ distress appeared moderately correlated with both anxiety (r = .34, p < .05) and depression (r = .36 < .05). Finally, results revealed a significant interaction effect of distress and GSE on depression (β = -.19, p < .05), confirming the moderating role of GSE. In particular, for low levels of GSE (-1 SD), the correlation between distress and depression was large and significant (r = .53, p < .001), while for high level of GSE (+1 SD) this relationship was definitively lower (r = .14, p = .03). No significant moderating effects of GSE were found for stress-anxiety relationship. Conclusions: Results of this study seems to confirm that NAC may induce distress in BC patients. Moreover, distress, significantly related to anxiety and depression, may play a detrimental role for patients’ psychological well-being. Finally, GSE emerged as a moderator of distress-depression relationship, suggesting that negative consequences of stress could be reduced during NAC using GSE-based psychological intervention.

Background. Several psychological disorders have been described in patients affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Few studies have focused on the relationship between IBD and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and no data are available on the relationship between IBD and dissociative symptoms. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of PTSD and dissociative symptoms in a sample of IBD patients compared to healthy controls. A possible relationship with disease activity was also investigated. Methods: A total of 112 IBD patients, 55 Crohn’s disease (CD) and 57 Ulcerative Colitis (UC), and 114 healthy individuals were evaluated. IBD patients were divided into three subgroups according to disease activity (remission, mild, moderate). The revised version of the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R) and the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES) were administered to patients and controls. Results: IBD patients showed significantly higher rates of PTSD and dissociative symptoms compared to healthy controls. No differences were found between CD and UC patients. PTSD and dissociative symptoms were higher among CD patients with mild to moderate-severe activity compared to the remission group. No differences were found among UC patients with different activity levels. Conclusion: IBD patients show a high prevalence of dissociative and traumatic affective disorders. Future studies are needed to investigate the role of these disorders in the clinical course and management of IBD patients according to different disease activity phase.

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