| Abstract: |
(from the chapter) Depression is common in adults with cancer, and frequently co-exists with anxiety and pain. It is challenging to study because symptoms occur on a spectrum that ranges from sadness to major affective disorder, and mood change is often difficult to evaluate when a patient is confronted by repeated threats to life, is receiving complex cancer treatments, is fatigued, and/or is experiencing pain. Untreated depression, nevertheless, results in significant morbidity and mortality. Although the prevalence of depression varies across the 60 studies of at least 100 cancer patients cited in this chapter, ranging between 1.5 and 52%, there should be no doubt that cancer is associated with a high degree of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved). |
