Abstract
Cancer‐related psychological distress may lead to depression and anxiety among survivors. The vast majority of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) become long‐term survivors, but the risk of mental health problems after HL is not well‐characterized. Using national population‐based registries, we investigated the cumulative incidence of psychotropic drug (antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anxiolytics) use (proxies for depression and anxiety) in HL patients as well as if an increased risk would normalize over time for patients in remission. The study included 945 HL patients aged 18‐92 years and 4725 matched persons. In total, 215 HL patients (22.8%) received a prescription of any psychotropic drug (PD) at some point after date of diagnosis compared to 545 persons (11.5%) in the matched cohort. Cumulative incidences with death/relapse as competing risk confirmed that HL patients were at higher risk of receiving psychotropic drug prescriptions, but the increased risk was transient and normalized to the matched population 5 years into survivorship. Increased age, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, and disease stage were associated with higher risk of psychotropic drug prescriptions. Given the increased rate of psychotropic drug prescriptions after HL diagnosis, screening for symptoms of depression and anxiety is warranted after HL diagnosis and first years into survivorship.
Highlights
Using national population-based registries, we investigated the cumulative incidence of psychotropic drug use in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients as well as if an increased risk would normalize over time for patients in remission
5-year cumulative incidences were computed using the Aalen-Johansen estimator with deaths, relapses, or a matched person being diagnosed with HL before psychotropic drug (PD) prescription treated as competing risk, and presented by a forest plot (with 95% confidence intervals (CIs)) for HL patients stratified on gender, age, Ann Arbor stage, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), treatment regimen, and educational level
This nationwide study demonstrates that 5-year cumulative incidence of PD prescriptions was increased among patients with HL (21.5%) compared to the background population (8.4%)
Summary
Cancer-related psychological distress is well described, and several studies have consistently found increased risk of depression and anxiety among cancer patients as compared to persons without cancer, which can lead to increased use of psychotropic drugs (PDs) in patients with cancer.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] Poor mental health, and, in particular, unrecognized depression and anxiety could substantially reduce quality of life in patients surviving cancer and might even increase mortality.[10,11] Depression and anxiety may have detrimental impact on socioeconomic outcomes due to prolonged sick leave, increased risk of disability pension, and difficulties in maintaining family life.[12,13,14,15] attention to the mental health problems is important to ensure good quality of life following a cancer diagnosis. We investigated the patterns of PD prescriptions by time elapsed since diagnosis to analyze if a potential initial increase in PD prescriptions after diagnosis would return to rates as found in the matched population
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
