[Which is the demand for psychiatric and psychological interconsultation when the patient has cancer?]

The intervention of the professionals of mental health in the sphere of the oncology goes hand in hand with the advance that has been generated in the treatment of the oncological illnesses. This way patient's life is prolonged. This development gives place to a whole set of new problems for the patient, his family and the team of health professionals that have been caring him until the moment. 68 percent of the patients suffering cancer has dysfunctions of adaptation in some moment in the course of its illness. Between a 25 and 40 percent, depending on the characteristics of the sample, present a depressive disorder according to the criteria of the DSM-IV. Finally, the presence of delirium is very likely in around the 15 percent of the patients in general, in 25 percent of the aging and in 75 percent of the patients that are in the last stages of their illness.