The psychological taking charge of the oncological patient: a 3 years study on the activities of psychologists of the Piedmont and Aosta Valley Oncology Network.

Abstract

Tumor pathology is a bio-psycho-social event that has consequences for a person's life from all points of view, physical, psychological, relational and social. The mental discomfort that chronic pain and neoplastic pathology brings with it is present in 25-40% of cases, but the request for help to a psychologist, where not provided for by a specific diagnostic therapeutic assistance path, is in the case of medical pathologies less than 3%. The Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta Oncology Network has the role of coordinating the network of services that deal with the care of the cancer patient, including those relating to psycho-oncology. The article presents data relating to the activities of psycho-oncologists of the Network in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019. A shared tool is used to collect the data, a database, made up of various variables deemed necessary to be able to photograph the activities carried out by the psycho-oncologists belonging to the Network. The database has been the subject of comparison between psychologists and has led to continuous revisions of the tool from 2017 to 2019, more accurate version. The 3-year study involved 2188 (2017), 3341 (2018) and 3457 (2019) adult patients or their families treated by psycho-oncologists. Patients are predominantly female with breast cancer, married/cohabiting, whose pre-eminent discomfort is anxiety, combined with the depressive component. The psychological intervention is mainly psychological support (level 2). Psychological management is an important intervention in the path of the cancer patient. The systematic collection of data made it possible to detect an increase in patients who accessed the psycho-oncology service, from an estimate of 1/3% in 2009 to 4.6% in 2018/2019.