ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE POSSIBILITY IN PATIENTS WITH LUNG, COLORECTAL AND HEAD-NECK CANCER

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Anxiety and depression are common psychiatric symptoms, and an increased risk of suicide is also seen in cancer patients. It was aimed to evaluate clinical features, anxiety and depression prevalence, and suicide probability in patients with lung, colorectal and head-neck cancer, also to compare these psychological factors with those with a healthy control group.MATERIAL AND METHODS: The patients with 82 lung cancer, 99 colorectal cancer and 79 head-neck cancer and a control group of 98 healthy individuals were included in the study. Sociodemographic data form, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) were administered to all the participants.RESULTS: The prevalence of anxiety symptoms was 29.2% and depression was 52.7% in cancer patients. HADS anxiety and depression subscales and SPS mean scores were higher in cancer patients than healthy controls. The patients with head-neck cancer were more anxious, more depressed, and suicidal than the healthy controls. The patients with lung cancer were only more depressed than the healthy controls. Additionally, it was found that female gender, fatigue, and pain experience in cancer patients were seen as factors that increased the frequency of anxiety and depression; advanced stage disease was only related to the frequency of depression, and a history of psychiatric treatment affected only the frequency of anxiety.CONCLUSIONS: Psychological factors varies in different types of cancer. The cancer patients should be evaluated in terms of psychiatric problems by the clinicians to determine the level of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.