Abstract
Background. The biomedical care for cancer has not been complemented by psychosocial progressions in cancer care. Objectives. To find the prevalence of anxiety and depression amongst cancer patients in a hospital setting. Design and Setting. This cross-sectional study was conducted at the tertiary care hospitals Shifa International Hospital Islamabad and Nuclear Medicine, Oncology, and Radiotherapy Institute [NORI]. Patients and Methods. 300 patients were interviewed from both the outpatient and inpatient department using The Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale (AKUADS). Main Outcome Measures. Using a score of 20 and above on the AKUADS, 146 (48.7%) patients were suffering from anxiety and depression. Results. When cross tabulation was done between different factors and the cancer patients with anxiety and depression, the following factors were found out to be significant with associated p value < 0.05: education of the patient, presence of cancer in the family, the severity of pain, and the patient's awareness of his anxiety and depression. Out of 143 (47.7%) uneducated patients, 85 (59.4%) were depressed, hence making it the highest educational category suffering from depression and anxiety. Conclusion. The prevalence of anxiety and depression amongst cancer patients was high showing that importance should be given to screening and counseling cancer patients for anxiety and depression, to help them cope with cancer as a disease and its impact on their mental wellbeing. Limitations. The frequency of female patients in our research was higher than those of male patients.
Highlights
The biomedical care for cancer has not been complemented by psychosocial progressions in cancer care
After analyzing 32 researches which defined these 19 questionnaires, Saeed et al came to a conclusion in their research that Bradford Somatic Inventory (BSI) [13], Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale (AKUADS) [14], and self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ) [15] are the most thoroughly judged for an Urdu setting
The AKUADS is indigenously an Urdu scale, the BSI concurrently was developed in English and Urdu, and the SRQ was adapted to Urdu scale
Summary
The biomedical care for cancer has not been complemented by psychosocial progressions in cancer care. To find the prevalence of anxiety and depression amongst cancer patients in a hospital setting. Various cancer patients report that those in charge did not understand their psychosocial needs, failed to recognize and address depression and anxiety, were unaware of them, and did not refer them to available resources such as counselors or psychiatrists, and overall did not consider psychological support to be an important part of quality medical care [2]. Anxiety has been shown to mutually exist with depression [7,8,9] This is important as it has been shown that patients with coexisting anxiety and depressive disorders tend to have drastic symptoms, extended healing times, worse outcomes, and greater burden on healthcare resources than those with a singular disorder [10]
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