Neuropsychiatric syndromes and psychological symptoms in patients with advanced cancer

Abstract

This article represents the contributions of the panel on "Neuropsychiatric Syndromes and Psychological Symptoms" of the National Cancer Institute of Canada Workshop on Symptom Control and Supportive Care in Patients with Advanced Cancer. The panel's presentations focused on mood disorders and cognitive disorders, and described the current state of knowledge regarding prevalence, assessment, and intervention. Recommendations for future research are presented based on a consensus of the panel as to the need to fill glaring gaps in our current state of knowledge, and a desire to improve the quality of research in this area of palliative medicine. Recommendations for future research on neuropsychiatric symptoms and syndromes in palliative care include (1) adoption of uniform terminology (taxonomy of disorders) and diagnostic classification systems, (2) utilization of existing validated tools and measures in prevalence and intervention research, (3) development of new tools and measures that are more applicable and relevant to the palliative care setting, (4) encouragement for studies of the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms and syndromes, (5) promotion of intervention studies utilizing pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments for depressive disorders and cognitive disorders in advanced cancer patients, and (6) expansion of the focus of such research to other neuropsychiatric disorders (for example, anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorders, and sleep disorders), symptoms (fatigue and tension) and related issues (suicidal ideation and desire for hastened death).