title: [Mental distress in cancer patients].
abstract: Cancer patients receive treatments while being subjected to various distresses such as matters regarding their job, household, and purpose in life, as well as therapeutic problems. Each of these is a marked stress factor, which sometimes leads to the onset of mental disorders. About half of cancer patients undergo a psychiatric diagnosis during treatment. Anxiety and/or depression for which therapeutic intervention is needed is observed in 20 to 40% of them. Mental disorders need to be managed promptly because they cause not only distress owing to mental manifestations, but also reduce patients' motivation for treatment, impair their decision-making, and increase the incidence of suicide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psycho-Oncology, Saitama Medical University International Medical Center, Hidaka 350-1298.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohnishi
mesh_terms: D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology