Depression and anxiety in cancer patients and their relatives

To investigate the depression and anxiety levels and the factors that affect patients receiving chemotherapy and their relatives with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scoring system.

330 patients and 330 relatives of these patients were enrolled in this study. The study forms including the questions regarding the patient demographic characteristics, BDI, and STAI were completed during face-to-face interviews by trained interviewers for the determination of the psychological status of the patients and their relatives. BDI and STAI were validated for Turkish population by studies made before.

According to BDI scale, 96 (29.1%) patients had mild and 60 (18.2%) had severe depression. Seventy-one (21.5%) relatives had mild and 24 (7.3%) had severe depression. Anxiety evaluation was made by STAI scale and a statistical difference emerged between patients and relatives (patients: 44.93±8.8 vs relatives: 43.27±8.5, p=0.015). The depression and anxiety levels were higher in women, in people with low socio-economic level, in people having a time period between diagnosis and participation in the study longer than 6 months, and in people having relapsing disease.

Since there are many emotional and psychological disorders in patients and their relatives, much attention should be paid in order to diagnose and treat their psychiatric disorders and enough information about their disease should be given.