Screening for distress in patients with brain cancer using the NCCN's rapid screening measure.
OBJECTIVE
Patients with brain cancer are at a risk of experiencing elevated levels of distress due to the severe functional, neurocognitive, and neuropsychological sequelae of the disease. Using the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's Distress Thermometer, we evaluated the extent and sources of distress within a population of patients with brain cancer.


METHODS
Participants were asked to complete the Distress Thermometer, a single-item rapid screening tool for distress. The Distress Thermometer is a visual analog scale on which participants rate their level of distress from '0' (none) to '10' (extreme). Participants were also asked to designate which items from a 34-item list constitute sources of distress.


RESULTS
Fifty-two percent of participants met the > or =4 cut-off score for distress. The scores were positively correlated with patient-reported emotional sources of distress (r = 0.444, p < 0.001), physical sources of stress (r = 0.231, p < 0.05), and total number of concerns (r = 0.368, p < 0.001). On average, brain tumor patients reported 5.8 cancer-related items of concern.


CONCLUSIONS
Brain cancer patients are likely to experience distress at some point during their disease trajectory. Patient-reported emotional sources of distress should be targeted and interventions should be designed to address sources of distress such as worry, sadness, and depression.
Keir
Stephen T
ST
The Tug McGraw Research Center, The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke, 3624 DUMC, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Keir0001@mc.duke.edu
Calhoun-Eagan
Roberta D
RD
Swartz
Jonas J
JJ
Saleh
Oussama A
OA
Friedman
Henry S
HS
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011379:Prognosis; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012803:Sick Role