Management of psychiatric-related comorbidities in people with cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Psycho-oncology provides a comprehensive understanding of cancer patients and offers an approach to the emotional, social and spiritual distress which accompanies them. Objectives: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depression, the quality of life, cognitive impairment, sleep disorders and substance dependence in cancer patients from a general Romanian hospital. Materials & Methods: This is a prospective longitudinal study that assessed 130 patients from the radio-oncology department for three months. A number of 37 patients were reevaluated. We applied a number of eight scales for the evaluation of psychiatric comorbidities: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (QLESQ-SF), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), Visual Analog Scale for Pain (VAS Pain), CAGE scale and Fagerstrom Test (for alcohol and tobacco dependence), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; for cognitive impairment). Results: As expected, depression and anxiety rated high in the study population. The quality of life is strongly correlated with the intensity of pain, depression and anxiety level. There was a high rate of alcohol and nicotine use among these oncological patients, although the majority of them stopped consume after confronting with the diagnosis. Patients with lung cancer have frequent sleep disorders. Conclusions: To sum up, patients from oncology departments should always have access to psychiatric services due to the high prevalence of this type of disorders. Both the disease and oncological treatment influence the quality of life and can lead to anxiety and depression.