Conclusions
P., anxiety
SAID, DISEASES
Comics can be said to communicate concepts by telling stories with relevant characters, settings, and situations; they are also accessible, even for patients with different educational levels. Graphic novels are a recently-created, original and creative way of informing patients about diseases or medical procedures. In the scenario outlined in this paper, a graphic novel has been demonstrated to improve the ability to tolerate anxiety while waiting for an invasive examination, such as an oral biopsy. With the present study, the authors aspire to attract attention to the possible role of graphic novel in dealing with patient anxiety, thereby becoming an invaluable tool to the medical practitioner in the field of oral medicine.Ackcnowledgements The authors would like to thank Giorgia Piazza for her instrumental role in drafting the test graphic novel, which was used in this research. The authors also thank J O Davies for the positive contribution to language editing.Authors contributions Conceptualization, M.B. and G.C.; methodology, M.B., R.M. and G.C.; investigation, M.B.; data curation, M.B. and G.M.; writing—original draft preparation, M.B. and G.M.; writing—review and editing, R.M. and G.C.; visualization, R.M.; supervision, G.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.Ethics This open-label randomized clinical trial (RCT) was approved by the local Institutional Ethics Committee of the P. Giaccone University Hospital, Palermo, Italy (approval #1/2022).Conflicts of interest The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.Funding None declared.