The Journal of Medical Sciences

Register      Login

VOLUME 6 , ISSUE 1 ( January-March, 2020 ) > List of Articles

Original Article

Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression and Assessment of Quality of Life in Patients Undergoing Cancer Treatment

Chahat Sahoonja, Tanujveer S Chandok, Manish Bathla, Apurva Pandey

DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10045-00145

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Published Online: 01-04-2020

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2020; The Author(s).


Abstract

Background: Cancer can have a deleterious impact on the well-being of a patient and can affect the mental health. Cancer treatment is influenced by anxiety and depression and thereby recovery, quality of life, and survival may get hampered. Depression is the most common psychiatric syndrome that has received the most attention in individuals with cancer. It has an intense impact on lives of patients and it continues to be underdiagnosed and inadequately treated. Depression most commonly coexists with other syndromes such as panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Cancer is threatening and understandably many patients get anxious in response to that threat and anxiety appears to increase as the illness progresses. Depression and anxiety have impact on morbidity and mortality leading to worsening of quality of life. In patients with cancer on treatment, there is a greater degree of association between anxiety and depression with worsening of quality of life. In this study, we assessed prevalence of depression, anxiety, and the quality of life in patients undergoing cancer treatment. We tried to find out the correlation between prevalence of depression and anxiety. We also looked at the quality of life in patients undergoing cancer treatment. Materials and methods: Our study was conducted on 50 patients who were undergoing cancer treatment. We used Hamilton depression rating (HAM-D) and Hamilton anxiety rating (HAM-A) scales, respectively, to assess the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The quality of life was assessed using quality of life-10 (QOL-10) questionnaire. Results: In this study among subjects on chemotherapy, 46.7% had mild depression, 30% had moderate depression, 16.7% had severe depression, and 6.7% had very severe depression. Among subjects on radiotherapy, 53.3% had mild depression, 13.3% had moderate depression, 33.3% had severe depression, and 0% had very severe depression. Among subjects on chemotherapy along with radiotherapy, 20% had mild depression, 40% had moderate depression, 40% had severe depression, and 0% had very severe depression. In this study, 60% had mild anxiety, 38% had mild to moderate anxiety, and 2% had moderate to severe anxiety. Among those on chemotherapy, 66.7% had mild anxiety; among those on radiotherapy, 53.3% had mild anxiety; and among those on chemotherapy + radiotherapy, 60% had mild to moderate anxiety. In this study, there was positive correlation between HAM-A and HAM-D scores, that is, with an increase in HAM-A score, there was an increase in HAM-D score and vice versa. Conclusion: In our study, patients with cancer had higher prevalence of anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression often lead to poor quality of life.


HTML PDF Share
  1. Global burden of depressive disorders in the year 2000. Brit J Psychiat 2004;184(05):386–392. DOI: 10.1192/bjp.184.5.386.
  2. Depression, chronic diseases, and decrements in health: results from the world health surveys. Lancet 2007;370(9590):851–858. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61415-9.
  3. Predictors of psychosocial adjustment in patients newly diagnosed with gynaecological cancer. Cancer Nurs 1984;7(4):291–299. DOI: 10.1097/00002820-198408000-00003.
  4. Anxiety and depression after cancer diagnosis: prevalence rates by cancer type, gender, and age. J Affect Disord 2012;141(2-3):343–345. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.03.025.
  5. Mixed anxiety/depression symptoms in a large cancer cohort: prevalence by cancer type. Psychosomatics 2009;50(4):383–391. DOI: 10.1176/appi.psy.50.4.383.
  6. Depression and degree of acceptance of adjuvant cytotoxic drugs. Lancet 2000;356(9238):1326–1327. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)02821-X.
  7. Depression and cancer mortality: a meta-analysis. Psychol Med 2010;40(11):1797–1810. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291709992285.
  8. Prevalence of depression in patients with cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr 2004;32(32):57–71. DOI: 10.1093/jncimonographs/lgh014.
  9. Prevalence of depression and anxiety among cancer patients. Caspian J Intern Med 2014;5(3):167–170.
  10. Biological mechanisms of cancer-induced depression. Front Psychiatry 2018;9:299. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00299.
  11. Prevalence of depression and anxiety amongst cancer patients in a hospital setting: a cross-sectional study. Psychiatry J 2016. 1–6. DOI: 10.1155/2016/3964806.
  12. Cancer survivorship. N Engl J Med 2018;379(25):2438–2450. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1712502.
  13. Depression in cancer patients: pathogenesis, implications and treatment (review). Oncol Lett 2015;9(4):1509–1514. DOI: 10.3892/ol.2015.2944.
  14. Biological basis for the clustering of symptoms. Semin Oncol Nurs 2016;32(4):351–360. DOI: 10.1016/j.soncn.2016.08.002.
  15. Quality of life among cancer patients. Indian J Palliat Care 2017;23(4):445–450. DOI: 10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_82_17.
  16. The UK Top living with and beyond cancer research priorities. [https://www.ncri.org.uk/lwbc/#lwbc_questions]. Accessed 25 July 2020.
  17. Implementing personalized pathways for cancer follow-up care in the United States: proceedings from an American cancer society–American society of clinical oncology summit. CA Cancer J Clin 2019;69(3):234–247. DOI: 10.3322/caac.21558.
PDF Share
PDF Share

© Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) LTD.