Quality of life, depression, and psychosocial mechanisms of suicide risk in prostate cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-cutaneous cancer in men and is usually identified at a stage at which prolonged survival is expected. Therefore, strategies to address survivorship and promote well-being are crucial. This study’s aim was to better understand suicidal behavior in PCa patients by examining psychosocial mediators (i.e., depression, psychache, perceived burdensomeness [PB], thwarted belongingness [TB]) in the relationship between quality of life (PCa-QoL) and suicide risk.
 Methods: Four hundred and six men with PCa (Median age 69.35 years, standard deviation 7.79) completed an online survey on various psychosocial variables associated with suicide risk. A combined serial/parallel mediation model tested whether depression, in serial with both psychache and PB/TB, mediated the relationship between PCa-QoL and suicide risk.
 Results: Over 14% of participants’ self-reports indicated clinically significant suicide risk. Poorer PCa-QoL was related to greater depression, which was related to both greater psychache and PB/TB, which was associated with greater suicide risk. The serial mediation effect of depression and psychache was significantly stronger than that of depression and PB/TB. PCa-QoL did not predict suicide risk through depression alone, showing that depressive symptoms affect suicide risk through psychache and PB/TB.
 Conclusions: Given the alarming estimate of individuals at-risk for suicide in this study, clinicians should consider patients with poorer PCa-QoL and elevated depression for psychosocial referral or management. Psychache (i.e., psychological pain) and PB/TB (i.e., poor social fit) may be important targets for reducing suicide risk intervention beyond the impact of depression alone.

Assessment of selected suicide risk factors and the level of spirituals transcendence and religiosity

“…In addition, our results indicated a co-occurrence of depressivity with more severe psychological pain and a moderately higher fascination with death. Tripp et al (2020) also indicated a stronger relationship between depression and psychological pain compared to the correlation between depressivity and lack of a sense of belonging (Tripp et al, 2020).…”

Patient-Reported Outcomes of Regular Aerobic Exercise in Gastric Cancer

“…Although few studies have examined the relationship between depression and HRQOL in patients with gastric cancer, the findings of previous studies on other types of cancer have supported the negative association between depression and HRQOL. For example, among patients with esophageal cancer [ 21 ], prostate cancer [ 31 ], gynecological cancer [ 24 ], hematological cancer [ 32 ], and breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy [ 33 ], depression was identified as an independent risk factor for reducing various aspects of HRQOL. Depression is characterized by feelings of sadness and can result in severe impairments that interfere with or limit one’s ability to carry out major life activities, both at work and at home [ 34 ].…”

Revisiting Self-Objectification Among Black Women: The Importance of Eurocentric Beauty Norms

“…We, therefore, examined two chains of events leading from the predictor variable to the outcome variable. This analytical methodology was modeled after the approach and findings of Tripp et al (2020).…”