Psychological Distress with Breast Cancer Patients
Introduction--
● Definition of distress
● Over 30% experience psychological distress
● Distress thermometer--validated rapid screening tool for psychological distress--1
Endorsed by the NCCN Distress Management Guidelines panel--1
Serves as an initial item question screen with identifies distress from any source
Distress is used because it is less embarrassing to patients
Assesses how much a distress a patient is experiencing
Patients circle a number to describe the amount of distress--0-10
● Screen patients for distress before, during, and after treatment
● Identify the sources of distress
● Specific time periods
Anxiety and Depression-1
Anxiety
● Anxiety is the most common psychological symptoms
● Has a multi-dimensional construct
Cognitive, psychological and physical reactions
● Causes fatigue and poor treatment outcome--quality of life
● Influences the neuroendocrine and immune systems
● Overwhelmed with anxiety symptoms and negative outcomes
● Uncertainty about the future- recurrence- fear of treatment
● More prevalent than depression
Depression
● Third highest among breast cancer patients, after pancreatic and brain cancer
● Patients are generally reluctant to disclose depressive symptoms
● Diagnosis of depression in cancer patients is not easy
● Affects quality of life, self-care, treatment compliance, and outcome of therapy and
survival
Study for anxiety and depression
● Malaysian Breast Cancer Cohort
● Purpose- identify the association between genetics, lifestyle, and survival in breast
cancer patients
● Participants were from University of Malaya Medical Centre
● They were put into groups based on their time of diagnosis
● Used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
● Used the Distress thermometer
● Age, ethnicity, treatment types, and stages of cancer were used
Results
● 50.2% of patients had high level of distress--baseline was 6 months and one year
● They also had higher anxiety scores
● Little difference in depressive between patients with low or high distress levels
Introduction--
● Definition of distress
● Over 30% experience psychological distress
● Distress thermometer--validated rapid screening tool for psychological distress--1
Endorsed by the NCCN Distress Management Guidelines panel--1
Serves as an initial item question screen with identifies distress from any source
Distress is used because it is less embarrassing to patients
Assesses how much a distress a patient is experiencing
Patients circle a number to describe the amount of distress--0-10
● Screen patients for distress before, during, and after treatment
● Identify the sources of distress
● Specific time periods
Anxiety and Depression-1
Anxiety
● Anxiety is the most common psychological symptoms
● Has a multi-dimensional construct
Cognitive, psychological and physical reactions
● Causes fatigue and poor treatment outcome--quality of life
● Influences the neuroendocrine and immune systems
● Overwhelmed with anxiety symptoms and negative outcomes
● Uncertainty about the future- recurrence- fear of treatment
● More prevalent than depression
Depression
● Third highest among breast cancer patients, after pancreatic and brain cancer
● Patients are generally reluctant to disclose depressive symptoms
● Diagnosis of depression in cancer patients is not easy
● Affects quality of life, self-care, treatment compliance, and outcome of therapy and
survival
Study for anxiety and depression
● Malaysian Breast Cancer Cohort
● Purpose- identify the association between genetics, lifestyle, and survival in breast
cancer patients
● Participants were from University of Malaya Medical Centre
● They were put into groups based on their time of diagnosis
● Used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
● Used the Distress thermometer
● Age, ethnicity, treatment types, and stages of cancer were used
Results
● 50.2% of patients had high level of distress--baseline was 6 months and one year
● They also had higher anxiety scores
● Little difference in depressive between patients with low or high distress levels
