Addressing the Burden of Psychiatric Comorbidities in Cancer Patients

BACKGROUND Cancer is now a major cause of mortality and morbidity all over the world. A substantial proportion of patients suffer from psychological distress at one stage or the other due to cancer. Having a clear understanding of the prevalence of common mental disorders in patients with cancer is important not only from the point of planning services geared towards holistic care but also because there is evidence to indicate that untreated psychiatric comorbidities in patients with cancer have a significant impact on disability and quality of life and they tend to worsen if not treated adequately. We wanted to assess the comorbid psychiatric conditions in patient attending oncology OPD at a tertiary care hospital & teaching institute in Telangana and study the psychiatric co-morbidity in relation to socio-economic variables & clinical variables. We also wanted to evaluate as to whether awareness about the disease affects psychiatric well-being. METHODS A total of 60 cancer patients were assessed for psychiatric co-morbidity in a tertiary health care centre in Telangana. RESULTS Most common psychiatric diagnosis made is MDD followed by GAD. Majority of the patients did not have anxiety. Most of them were diagnosed to have depression of varying severity. Being aware about the disease had no effect on psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS It is useful to assess psychiatric symptoms in cancer patients not only during diagnosis but also repeatedly during the first year of treatment. It will thereby be possible to identify patients in need of psychiatric consultation and treatment.