0000000000064408
AUTHOR
Ludger Pientka
Requestioning depression in patients with cancer: Contribution of somatic and affective symptoms to Beck's Depression Inventory
Background: Depressive symptoms are a major complaint reported by cancer patients. Somatic and affective symptoms can contribute to depression. Patients and methods: We investigated the prevalence of somatic and affective depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in 213 hospitalized cancer patients prior to the start of chemotherapy. Results: Seventeen of 213 patients (8%) were screened positive for major depression; 40 (19%) had mild to moderate depressive symptoms. The corresponding figures for somatic and affective symptoms were 33.3% and 2.8% in the patients with major depression and 23.0% and 8.0% in those with mild to moderate depressive symptoms. Female patients, p…
Depression and functional impairment independently contribute to decreased quality of life in cancer patients prior to chemotherapy
An inverse association either between depression or impaired functional status and quality of life (QoL) has been reported for cancer patients, but the independent effect of depression or depressive symptoms and of functional impairment on QoL is unclear.We investigated the prevalence of depression or depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the functional impairment with the ECOG-Performance-Status (ECOG-PS) and the QoL with the EORTC-QLQ-C30 questionnaire in a sample of 175 hospitalised cancer patients prior to the start of chemotherapy.Sixteen of 175 patients (9.1%) screened positive for major depression, 29 (16.6%) had mild to moderate depressive symptoms. In 11 of …