Rapid screening of depression and anxiety in cancer patients: Interview validation of emotion thermometers

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the degree of depression and anxiety in cancer patients using the Emotion Thermometers (ET) and confirming their clinical usefulness compared to the gold standard interview, as well as determining optimal cut-off values for the appropriate identification of cancer patients' distress. We included 238 cancer patients and we used ET (Emotion Thermometers) to screen depression and anxiety and the Beck depression inventory for adults (BDI-II), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) and the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I) was used as the criterial validity standard. The prevalence of anxiety on the M.I.N.I. was 24% and depression was 11%. The optimal value for diagnosis of depression from ET (Dep ET) appears to be >4.5 (AUC 0.928) against M.I.N.I. Optimal score for anxiety from ET (AnxT ET) compared to GAD according to M.I.N.I. we determined the value of 3.5 (AUC 0.899). To determine the cut off score for distress using from ET (DT), we compared against GAD-7 and BDI-II RS (raw total score) and the most optimal was 4.5 (AUC 0.953). For analysis of the cut off score for quality of life (QoL) against the total sums of all parts of the ET, the value of 14.5 (AUC 0.892) forms the cut off between the negative and the positive clinical finding. The results of the study support the use of ET as a rapid screening tool for the detection of depression, anxiety and distress in cancer patients.