[Anxiety and depression in cancer patients during the course of radiotherapy treatment]

Abstract

Background: Undergoing radiotherapy is often associated with severe impairment of quality of life in cancer patients. Especially psychosocial aspects like anxiety and depression play a major role. The aim of this study was to closely analyze anxiety and depression during the course of radiotherapy treatment.

Methods: A total of 60 patients, who received radiotherapy because of a tumor disease between June 2005 and April 2006, were included in the prospective study; 57 (95%) patients were primarily treated with radiotherapy. In 72% of the cases the intention to treat was curable, in 18% palliative. Anxiety and depression (HADS-D) were assessed at three points in time: before (A) and after (B) radiotherapy treatment (RT), and 6 weeks after finishing RT at the follow-up appointment (C).

Results: Before therapy (A), 41% of the treated patients showed positive or marginally positive symptoms of anxiety and 33% symptoms of depression. The symptoms of anxiety significantly decreased during the course of therapy. The proportion of patients with a positive score of anxiety dropped from 16% at the beginning of RT (A) to 9% after the RT (B; p = 0.04). In addition, there was an increase in the number of patients who scored negatively with regard to anxiety from 59% (A) to 72% (B; p = 0.04). With regard to the median score of anxiety, no statistically significant change (p > 0.05) was observed during therapy, while for depression, the number of positively tested patients also decreased significantly during the course of therapy from the beginning of RT (A, 14%) to the first follow-up appointment (C, 9%; p = 0.02). Furthermore, the number of negatively tested patients rose by 8% (p = 0.02). During the whole course of the study, the median score of depression decreased from 6 (A) to 5 points (C; p = 0.01).

Conclusion: More than one third of the treated patients suffered from positive or marginally positive symptoms of anxiety and depression. This present study showed a decrease of anxiety and depression symptoms during the course of radiotherapy.