The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for a psychological support in systemic sclerosis patients.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic stress symptoms in patients with systemic autoimmune diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Lastly, the low prevalence of connective tissue diseases with respect to the inflammatory arthritis group could have played a role. Indeed, it has been shown that COVID-19 had significant personal and social impact especially on people living with rare rheumatic diseases such as connective tissue diseases as it exacerbates the many challenges the patients have to face in their daily living (39)(40)(41). Moreover, in the first phase of the pandemic, knowledge of the impact of the disease in rare diseases was few and fragmented; in the complete absence of guidelines, even medical decisions had to be based on the experience of the individual, generating further disorientation and insecurity in the patient.…”