Distress overlaps with anxiety and depression in patients with head and neck cancer

Abstract

Psychological problems in cancer patients often go unrecognized until they are specifically sought. This is more in patients with depression as they are reluctant to complain about their symptoms. The present study was carried out to evaluate the relation of distress with anxiety and depression in 123 patients with head and neck cancers using Distress Inventory for Cancer version 2 (DIC2) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS). The mean DIC 2 scores were 24.6 while that of subscales ranged from 2.6 to 11.0. Fifteen patients were found to have clinical caseness for anxiety while 12 (10%) were caseness for depression. Total distress, emotional and social distress subscales were found to have positive correlation with anxiety and depression suggesting a possible overlap of two constructs. In multivariate analysis only belief in god was found to significantly affect the distress. Results of present study suggest significant psychological morbidity in head neck cancer patients undergoing curative treatment. This is the first study reporting on the psychometric properties of distress inventory on cancer version 2 since its validation, the results suggest a possible overlap of two constructs similar to that seen with other tools on distress and this may have major implications for clinical practice.

Function, postoperative morbidity, and quality of life after cervical sentinel node biopsy and after selective neck dissection

“…As a result, they judge their QOL lower than the physician does. 37 In our study, the prevalence of anxiety (20.4%) and depression (26.5%) was significantly higher than in the general population (anxiety 5 5.9%, depression 5 15.8%) confirming the findings of other authors 38 and suggesting psychologic morbidity in patients with head and neck cancer even after curative treatment. Interestingly, patients treated by SNB showed significantly less fear of progression than patients who underwent SND (p 5 .024).…”

Higher distress relates to poor quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer

“…The responses are recorded on a 5 point likert scale. The tool contains negatively and positively toned items to check for acquiescent responding 28,29,37 . QOL was measured with FACT-HN 30 , a total QOL score that also provides four primary QOL domains: physical well being, social well being, emotional well being and functional well being, and head and neck specific subscale.…”

Gender, age and surgery as a treatment modality leads to higher distress in patients with cancer

“…The Distress Inventory for Cancer (DIC) since its first publication [32] has been substantially revised [33][34][35][36]. The data from a large sample of patients that had responded to the DIC version 2 were the basis, on which the present study is reported.…”