The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Cognitive Function in Patients With Cancer: A Systematic Literature Review

Background

The COVID-19 pandeminc has had widespread impacts, but its specific effects on mental health and cognitive function in patients with cancer remain under-explored.

Recent Findings

Data from the general population has suggested that mental health problems were frequent during the pandemic, namely during the initial stage of the outbreak. For patients with cancer, a systematic review and meta-analysis of data published until January 2021 also showed elevated prevalence of depression and anxiety, and suggested that anxiety was more frequent than in health workers and healthy controls.

Objective

This systematic review aimed to synthesize existing evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and cognitive function in patients with cancer.

Methods

Studies were identified through systematic search of three electronic bibliographic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCOHOST) with adapted search strings. We included only peer-reviewed, nonqualitative, original research papers, published between 2019 and 2022, and reporting on mental health and/or cognition outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in adult patients with cancer.

Results

Of 3260 papers identified, 121 full text articles were retrieved and 71 met inclusion criteria. We found that patients with cancer reported high levels of psychological distress, anxiety and depression, as well as cognitive complaints during the pandemic. However, studies were not consistent in identifying these symptoms as effects of the pandemic specific for this population. In fact, longitudinal studies did not find consistent differences between pre- and post-pandemic periods and, globally, patients with cancer did not report increased severity of these mental health symptoms in relation to the general population.

Conclusion

Overall, while the COVID-19 pandemic may have raised mental health challenges for patients with cancer, the diagnosis of cancer and associated treatments seemed to remain the main source of concern for these patients.