Clinical indicators of depression among ambulatory cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to investigate clinical indicators of depression among randomly selected ambulatory patients with cancer who were receiving chemotherapy.


METHODS
The patients were asked to complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C 30 and an ad hoc questionnaire regarding several additional common chemotherapy-related symptoms.


RESULTS
Complete data were available for 211 patients. Of the total, 13.7% patients experienced clinical depression. The presence of clinical depression was significantly associated with patient demographic characteristics (education level) as well as several symptoms such as the presence of pain, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite, nausea and fatigue. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that a lower education level and the presence of pain were significantly associated with clinical depression.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that ambulatory cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy and have pain and/or a lower education level have a higher probability of suffering from clinical depression; these factors may be useful for the early identification of depression in cancer patients.
Department of Psychiatry and Cognitive-Behavioral Medicine, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 467-8601, Japan. takechi@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Tatsuo
T
Akechi
Toru
T
Okuyama
Megumi
M
Uchida
Tomohiro
T
Nakaguchi
Koji
K
Sugano
Yosuke
Y
Kubota
Yoshinori
Y
Ito
Yoshiyuki
Y
Kizawa
Hirokazu
H
Komatsu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010146:Pain / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents