DEPRESSION AMONG CANCER-PATIENTS

This study was done to investigate the frequency of co-morbidity and t o demonstrate the best method for assessing depression among cancer pa tients. The subjects were 50 (25 male and 25 female) cancer patients a nd 50 (25 male and 25 female) medically ill patients. All subjects wer e interviewed by psychiatrists and were administered psychological tes ts such as SAS (self-rating anxiety scale), SDS (self-rating depressio n scale), POMS (Profile of Mood States), HADS (Hospital Anxiety and De pression Scale) and DRP (Depression-related personality traits). The p sychiatric interview revealed that 44% of cancer patients and 38% of t he medical patients had mental disorders according to DSM-IV. The most frequently observed disorder was depression, which was seen in 28% of the cancer patients and 30% of the medical patients. The cancer patie nts with depression scored significantly higher on the DRP and the Ang er mood state of POMS than did the medically ill patients with depress ion. In addition, most psychological tests employed had no discriminat ion between depressed and normal subjects among the cancer and the med ical patients. However, it was found that the Depression scale in HADS (HADS-D) split depressed patients from normal subjects since the HADS -D was composed of items that were not concerned with physically ill c onditions.