title: [Depression screening test for patients with metastatic gastric and colorectal cancer].
abstract: The prevalence of depression has been reported to be higher in cancer patients, especially those of advanced stage, compared to normal controls. However, depression is often under-recognized in clinical oncology settings. And this psychological problem is not routinely assessed even in patients with inoperable metastatic cancer who often have psychological disorders. Psychological distress including depression, is affected by physical, psychosocial, and clinical factors. In order to detect psychiatric problems at the early stage, we assessed the mental conditions of 47 inpatients with metastatic gastric and colorectal cancerusing the Japanese version of Zung's Self Rating Depression Scale(SDS)and analyzed the relationships between these factors and SDS scores. While SDS scores of our patients did not differ according to their gender, age, performance status (PS), ortypes of patients' character, they were significantly higher in Group B(cancer patients with palliative care alone), compared to Group A(those receiving chemotherapy)(p<0. 001). As the disease in the four identical patients progressed to the terminal stage, their scores were significantly increased, respectively(p<0. 05). These results suggest that psychological intervention should be more critical for terminally ill patients without any indication of chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Palliative care team, Nagoya Memorial Hospital.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ina
authors.forename: Akemi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yuasa
authors.forename: Chiaki
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Koga
authors.forename: Emiko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
authors.forename: Yoshiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: Masatoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagaoka
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D015996:Survival Rate