Introduction:The present study describes the translation process of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) into Slovenian language and testing its reliability and validity on psychological morbidity in female cancer patients.The HADS consists of 14 items to assess anxiety (7 items) and depression (7 items). Each item is rated from 0 to 3. The maximum score on either subscale is 21. Scores of 11 or more on either subscales are considered to be a significant 'case' of psychological morbidity (clinical caseness), while scores of 8-10 represent ‘mood disorder’ (‘borderline’). A score of 7 or below is considered as normal.Methods:The English version of the HADS was translated into Slovene language using the 'forward-backward' procedure. The questionnaire was used in a study of 202 female cancer patients together with a clinical structured interview (CSI) to measure psychological state. A biserial correlation coefficient was calculated.Results:The mean score of participants rating on the HADS-A was 11,6 (sd 4,49) and on the HADS-D was 9,2 (sd 4,46). The value of biserial correlation coefficient was 0.81 for the depression scale and 0.91 for the anxiety scale.Conclusion:The validation process of the Slovenian HADS score version shows metric properties similar to those in international studies, suggesting that it measures the same constructs, in the same way, as the original HADS score form. This validation study of the Slovenian version of the HADS proved that it is an acceptable and valid measure of psychological distress among female cancer patients.

Depression expressed by patients with primary breast cancers could be influenced by the PR status of the tumors; however, other factors such as cancer treatment and family history of mental disorders could also be important.

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IntroductionBeside psychological distress of breast cancer diagnosis and patophysiological characteristics of breast cancer it is also known that different treatments could have influence on mental well-being. The aim of this study was to investigate treatment of depression, anxiety and breast cancer in Slovenian female patients.ResultsIn the study were included 314 female patients with breast cancer treated at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana between September 2004 and July 2005. Only 18 patients were not surgically treated. Majority (80%) of all patients were treated also with chemotherapy. In combination with chemotherapy 43% of all patients received also radiotherapy and 50% received also hormonal therapy. Altogether 72 (22,9%) patients expressed clinically important serious anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) score of 11 or more on anxiety subscale), 39 (12,4%) clinically significant serious depression (HAD score of 11 or more on depression subscale) and 51 (16,2%) clinically significant depression and anxiety combined (HAD score of 11 or more on both subscales). Among patients with clinically significant serious anxiety 19 (26,4%) patients were psychiatrically treated before inclusion into study. Among patients with clinically significant serious depression 13 (33,3%) patients were psychiatrically treated before inclusion into study and among patients with clinically significant serious anxiety and depression 24 (47,0%) patients were psychiatrically treated before inclusion into study.ConclusionsLess then half of patients with breast cancer with comorbid clinically significant expressed serious anxiety and/or depression has been psychiatrically treated before the inclusion in the study.