Depression in cancer patients: a literature review

Abstract

It is estimated that 20-25% of cancer patients suffer often unrecognized and untreated long-term depression, a condition that can make life miserable. Symptoms can include: lack of sleep; loss of interest in life; anxiety; irritation; loss of concentration; and, in severe cases, thoughts of suicide; leading to an overall poor quality of life. Given that the majority of patients diagnosed with clinical depression can be effectively treated with one form of treatment or another (psychological, pharmacological or a combination) it is now important that health care professionals routinely assess and offer treatment for depression in cancer patients. Therefore, this article reviews the literature on depression caused by cancer and highlights practical ways in which health care workers can measure and subsequently treat depression using pharmacological and psychological approaches.

The Mediating Role of Optimism and Pessimism on the Relationship between Spirituality and Depression among Elderly Cancer Patients

“…As presented, spirituality is associated with optimism, and optimism is associated with depression. Building on findings from previous studies that examine (1) the relationship between spirituality and optimism, and (2) the relationship between optimism and depression, the current study attempts to link the two relationships. To date, only one known study examines the mediating role of optimism in the relationship between spirituality and depression.…”

“…Depression is a common mental health issue experienced by cancer patients, 1) which can lead to patients' overall poor quality of life. 1,2) Studies have identified multiple risk factors for depression in cancer patients such as patients' symptom levels, functional impairments, and fatigue.…”

“…1,2) Studies have identified multiple risk factors for depression in cancer patients such as patients' symptom levels, functional impairments, and fatigue. 3,4) They suggest that cancer patients with depression require clinical inter-vention by health care professionals-including psychological and pharmacological services.…”

Sleep Disturbances in Patients With Malignancy and Non-Malignancy

“…Anxiety and depression, known as the most common factors influencing sleep quality, are also the most prevalent psychiatric disorders faced by patients with malignancy [17,18]. Keeping these in mind, we evaluated sleep quality in the patients with the GERD by comparison of their sleep quality scores with those of patients with malignancy, which themselves were reported to have sleep problems.…”

The association between previous psychological trauma and mental health among gastric cancer patients

“…This review also found that among gastric cancer the rates of depression varies from 13%-50% which is similar to earlier reports 10 . Methodological issues such as lack of standardization in terms of population studied, type of cancer, disease stage, sample size, assessment instruments, cutoff score, type of interview, and diagnostic criteria employed (including post traumatic stress disorder, major depression on the clinical scale as to stress symptoms and depressive symptoms on a self rated assessment scales) all contributed to the large variance in reported prevalence among these studies [10][11][12] . Additionally, the information about depression rates among gastric cancer is scarce in comparison to breast cancer [10][11][12] .…”