Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms among Adult Chronic Cancer Pain Patients of the Philippine General Hospital - Pain Clinic

Abstract

Objective. Chronic cancer pain and depressive symptoms are interrelated in clinical settings. As local data is lacking, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms among chronic cancer pain patients seen at the Philippine General Hospital - Pain Clinic (PGH-PC).Methods. In this retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study, data were collected from the charts of chroniccancer pain patients seen at the PGH-PC. The Pain Clinic Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ) tool was used to assess depressive symptoms. Clinico-demographic data were obtained and analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results. Of the 129 patients included in the study, 61 had depressive symptoms corresponding to a prevalence of 47.29% (38.72 - 56.01 95% CI). Overall, a more significant number of patients included in the study were female, belonged to age 41-50, were married, attained secondary education, and were unemployed. Demographically, there were no statistically significant differences between chronic cancer pain patients who exhibited depressive symptoms and those who did not. The cancer type showed a statistically significant difference among those cancer patients with or without depressive symptoms (p = 0.016). Breast and gynecologic malignancies comprised more than half of the patients studied. Neither the cancer stage nor the pain scores had a statistically significant difference among those cancer patients with or without symptoms of depression.Conclusion. Almost 1 in every two chronic cancer pain patients studied had depressive symptoms. Routine screening of patients for depressive symptoms could identify patients and may initiate interventions in this vulnerable population