Disclosure of true diagnosis in Japanese cancer patients

Hosaka, Tetsuya; Awazu, Hisae; Fukunishi, Isao; Okuyama, Toru; Wogan, James

doi:10.1016/s0163-8343(98)00075-9

Cited by 24 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…It has been found that 97% of doctors in the USA feel that they should tell the patient about his/her fatal illness and 78% of them have already done so [32,42]. But in many countries nondisclosure is still common [27,28]. Over half of our patients (54.7%) being unaware of their cancer diagnosis may be explained in two ways.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to a study from India, psychiatric morbidity is significantly lower in patients who are "unaware" of the diagnosis of cancer and who have a more hopeful outlook on the outcome of treatment [2]. On the contrary, in a study by Hosaka et al in Japan [28], the prevalence rate of psychiatric disorders was 42.9% in the informed group and 48.3% in the uninformed group, suggesting that concealing the true diagnosis is not related to the presence of psychiatric disorder in Japanese cancer patients. On the other hand, some studies have shown that the possible cost of poor communication with cancer patients include increased anxiety, distress, coping difficulties, and noncompliance with treatment [21,35].…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

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Psychiatric morbidity among cancer patients and awareness of illness

Ateşçi

Baltalarli

Oğuzhanoğlu

et al. 2004

Supportive Care in Cancer

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A significant proportion of cancer patients experience psychiatric morbidity. Potential predictors of psychiatric morbidity include patient disease-related factors and factors relating to the patient's environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and the relationship between the clinical or personal factors, especially psychiatric morbidity, and awareness of cancer diagnosis among a group of Turkish cancer patients. A total of 117 cancer patients were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Of these patients, 30% had a psychiatric diagnosis. Adjustment disorders comprised most of the psychiatric diagnoses. Awareness of the diagnosis of cancer, history of previous psychiatric disorders, pain and stress factors were correlated with psychiatric morbidity. Of the 117 patients, 64 (54.7%) were unaware of the diagnosis of cancer. Most of the patients (67.9%) who were considered to be aware of the cancer diagnosis stated that they had guessed their illness from the treatment process or drug adverse effects. Psychiatric morbidity was significantly higher in the patients who knew that they had a cancer diagnosis (P=0.03). These findings suggest that the awareness of cancer diagnosis is related to the presence of psychiatric morbidity. In particular, the understanding of the diagnosis indirectly may be stressful to the patient because it arouses suspicion about the cancer and treatment, and consequently can lead to psychiatric disturbance. In Turkey honest disclosure of the true diagnosis is still not common for cancer patients and it seems to be essential to improve this situation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Psychiatric morbidity among cancer patients and awareness of illness

Ateşçi

Baltalarli

Oğuzhanoğlu

et al. 2004

Supportive Care in Cancer

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show abstract

“…By 1977, this had reversed, with 97% preferring to tell a cancer patient the diagnosis [4]. Nowadays, in many developed countries, the attitudes of physicians towards informing cancer patients about their diagnosis have changed to truth-telling and disclosure of all important facts related to the disease [4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cancer patients' desire for information: a study in a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia

Alamri¹

2009

East Mediterr Health J

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“…As a rationale for holding discretionary power, doctors report a number of compelling reasons such as the need to protect patients from psychological distress caused by disclosure of the diagnosis, families' wishes for non-disclosure to patients, and the fact that most patients themselves do not wish to be told the truth [9,17,18]. However, several case-control studies report that there is no relationship between cancer disclosure and mental harm [19-21]. As family members are more reluctant than patients to disclose the truth [11,22], patients' needs for information are often unsatisfied in Japan where physicians often discuss the cancer diagnosis with family prior to informing the patient [23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%