Quality of life and people using antineoplastic agents: a descriptive study

Abstract

RESUMOObjetivos: avaliar a qualidade de vida das pessoas que apresentaram náuseas e vômitos induzidos por antineoplásicos e correlacionar a qualidade de vida com o potencial emetogênico do protocolo quimioterápico e com o dimensionamento do esquema antiemético. Método: estudo descritivo, quantitativo, realizado em um ambulatório de onco-hematologia de um hospital do município de São Paulo. Foi utilizado o questionário SF-36 para avaliar a qualidade de vida dos indivíduos e um questionário de caracterização da população. Resultados: a maior parte dos participantes do sexo feminino (70%), com idade entre 60 a 69 anos (33%), apresentava câncer ginecológico (30%) e realizava tratamento com protocolo de moderado potencial emetogênico (70%). Discussão: constatou-se comprometimento em todos os domínios de qualidade de vida avaliados. Não houve diferença significativa quando comparados os potenciais emetogênicos e os dimensionamentos antieméticos. Conclusão: os domínios de qualidade de vida mais afetados nesses indivíduos foram a limitação física e a vitalidade.

Estresse em pacientes submetidos a tratamento antineoplásico Stress in patients submitted to drug therapy

“…It is known that the cancer or the mere possibility of having a malignant tumor leads one to despair, fear, distress, hopelessness, sadness, nervousness. 4,6 A survey conducted in order to evaluate the level of stress in women with mastectomies, in assessing stress in 84 patients, found that 69,0% of them were with stress. 18 Similar to our study.…”

“…11 Nausea was one of the side effects most frequently reported by patients (16,0%), it is a very common effect in chemotherapy, often responsible for the anxiety and stress of it, because, in most cases, is accompanied by symptoms such as pallor, weakness, dizziness and sweating thus causing a general malaise, making it more difficult to face the patient's treatment. 4 Research conducted in the United States pointed out that the nausea and vomiting induced by antineoplastic is a striking factor for the loss of physical functions, such as going to work, perform household chores, practicing leisure activities, prepare meals, have self-care and even the ability to take medications. 14 In large randomized clinical trial, approximately 50.0% of patients treated with high emetic risk chemotherapy were vomiting, and 58% experienced nausea, despite undergoing antiemetic therapy.…”

“…6,8 Research has evaluated anxiety, depression and somatic complaints such as mismatch signal to stressful episodes as especially anxiety and depression are symptoms of stress. People with cancer diagnosis experience several that affect them at different stages of disease, 4 including the anticancer treatment. 4,10 Thus, treatment and monitoring, not only of cancer but also the stress caused, is essential.…”

“…These situations lead to a series of consequences such as the disintegration of the psychosocial system, intensification of death anxiety, leading to mobilization of psychological defenses and the redirection of energy to adapt to hospital reality and its procedures. 4,11 The demands of a cancer treatment involving hospitalization, excessive tests, complex anticancer regimens, complicated names of medications, side effects, among others, may bring the patient to feelings such as fear, anxiety, and pain importance.…”

“…According to its purpose, cancer chemotherapy can be classified into: healing, which aims to eradicate evidence of cancer cells; palliative, aimed at minimizing symptoms caused by tumor proliferation increasing survival. It can also be classified according to treatment period in which it is held, and may be secondary, that is, performed after a primary treatment such as surgery and; neoadjuvant when it is performed before the main treatment [4][5] The treatment alters the patient's life, the prospects and possibilities of choice and everyday life is interrupted, the person is removed from society that is accustomed and inhabits the world of the hospital, the drugs and their effects, treatment and its invasive procedures, absence from work, friends, family, and thus can expose the patient to a level of stress. [6][7] The term stress was introduced in the health field in 1936 by Hans Selye.…”