Depression in lung cancer patients: is the HADS an effective screening tool?

Abstract

The MADRS identified 92% of the patients as depressed; the HADS, 70% and 87%, using a cutoff of 11 and 8, respectively. The results suggest substantial agreement between the HADS and the MADRS when a cutoff of 8 is used (McNemar: p = 0.51; Cohen K = 0.69), while a HADS cutoff of 11 resulted in a significantly lower concordance with the MADRS (McNemar: p = 0.002; Cohen K = 0.49).

Anxiety and depression in working-age cancer survivors: a register-based study

“…To prevent families from an additional burden where a patient might have recently died or is in the palliative stage, we excluded tumor diagnoses with poor 5-year-survival rates such as lung cancer and brain tumors. Previous studies assessing anxiety and depression with the HADS found that lung cancer patients and advanced cancer patients reported higher rates of depression than in our sample [2, 41–44]. Therefore, our study might underestimate anxiety and depression in working-age cancer survivors.…”

Depressive symptoms during the first chemotherapy cycle predict mortality in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

“…Second, due to manpower considerations, depression was only assessed by a self-reported measure rather than formal diagnostic criteria. However, previous studies have demonstrated satisfactory sensitivity and specificity of the HADS, with a cutoff of eight, as a screening tool for depression in lung cancer patients [29]. Third, we did not include other psychological variables such as social support, coping style, or anxiety as the potential predictors for survival.…”

Accuracy of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale as a screening tool in cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In addition, three studies [14,35,39] had to be excluded from pooling because their prevalence rates were highly dissimilar from the majority of studies. A summary of all pooled findings is displayed in Table 2.…”