Routine screening for depression in radiation oncology patients.
OBJECTIVE
Depression is a debilitating illness with symptoms that overlap those of cancer and radiotherapy. We sought to measure the frequency of depression in adult radiation oncology patients.


METHODS
The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was incorporated into routine clinical evaluation of patients. Results were analyzed by univariate analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).


RESULTS
One hundred twenty-four patients were screened and 19 (15%) endorsed significant depressive symptoms. Of these, levels of depression were: 58% mild, 32% moderate, and 10% severe. Twenty-six percent of the depressed group had a history of previous psychiatric diagnoses and 32% previously had been placed on psychotropic medications. The most frequent somatic symptoms for the entire group were loss of energy (73%) and tiredness or fatigue (69%). All depressed patients endorsed some somatic symptoms, but these alone were insufficient to score in the range of depression.


CONCLUSIONS
A simple tool can be administered in the clinic by radiation oncologists to screen for depression. The frequency of depression in our patients was 15%. Somatic symptoms alone were insufficient to score as depressed.
Hahn
Carol A
CA
Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA. hahn@radonc.duke.edu
Dunn
Renee
R
Halperin
Edward C
EC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D018787:Radiation Oncology; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000523:psychology