Pain Intensity, Depression, and Anxiety Levels Among Patients With Chronic Pain During COVID-19 Pandemic

Limited data are available for real-world impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on chronic pain patients. This study aimed to evaluate pain intensity, depression, and anxiety status in chronic pain patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 110 patients with chronic pain participated on a voluntary basis in this questionnaire survey. The questionnaire form elicited information on sociodemographic characteristics and prepandemic and pandemic data on analgesic need, access to medication, visual analog scale (VAS) pain, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scores. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in increased levels of depression (74.5%), anxiety (66.4%), increase in analgesic need (60%), and limited access to analgesic drugs (40.0%). In conclusion, our findings revealed significant increase in VAS pain intensity, BDI, and BAI scores during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with prepandemic period among chronic pain patients, particularly for patients with increased need of analgesics during pandemic.