Prevalence of depression and anxiety among patients with breast cancer: a cross-sectional study

Background: Breast cancer patients have a significant rate of depression, according to prior studies. During some phases of patient management, particularly early after surgery, these patients are at risk for depression. Objectives: to assess the prevalence of depression and anxiety among patients with breast cancer and risk factors associated with it. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 74 patients diagnosed with breast cancer in the general surgery clinic at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Two questionnaires were used, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), filled in by patients who attended the clinic or electronically by sending the questionnaires to the patients. Significant depression was defined as PHQ-9 score >= 10 and significant anxiety was defined as GAD-7 score >= 10. Sociodemographic and medical data were also collected. This research was approved by the unit of biomedical ethics at King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Medicine. Results: From the 74 patients with breast cancer, 36% of the women were found to have depression and 24% were found to have anxiety and the prevalence of having both depression and anxiety was 23.0%. Mean PHQ-9 score was (8.9, SD: 5.8). The mean GAD-7 score was (6.7, SD: 5.2). Significant depression and significant anxiety were found to be more in Saudi nationals, those who did not go for surgical therapy, patients with metastatic disease at the time of filling in the questionnaire and married women. These results were not statistically significant. Conclusion: This study showed that the prevalence of depression and anxiety was similar to previously conducted studies; it also showed no associations between the risk factors studied and anxiety or depression in patients with breast cancer.