Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression in Prostate Cancer Patients and Their Spouses: An Unaddressed Reality

To estimate the prevalence of unsuspected anxiety or depression in prostate cancer patients and their spouses, as well as factors involved in its onset. Materials and Methods. A prospective study of 184 patients and 137 spouses evaluated in our hospital during 2019 using the Memorial Anxiety Scale for Prostate Cancer (MAX-PC), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Patient Health Questionnaire depression module (PHQ-9). This study provides an internal validity assessment of the scales and their correlation (alpha and rho coefficients; index r). The contributions of age, education level, months after diagnosis, pain, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, stage of the disease and treatment performed to the positivity of the questionnaires were studied using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney and chi-square tests.

The prevalence of anxiety was 10.9% (MAX-PC) and 28.3% (MAX-PC-PSA). The HADS-A questionnaire indicated pathology in 14.1% of the patients and 16.05% of the spouses. Depression was detected in 7% (HADS-D) and 9.2% (PHQ-9) of patients as well as in 8.8% (HADS-D) and 16.05% (PHQ-9) of their spouses. The greatest concordance between men and women was with the PHQ-9 (Spearman's rho: 0.78; p = 0.01). Education level is significantly related to the presence of anxiety and depression, regardless of the questionnaire applied. The probability of detecting pathology in the MAX-PC varied from 6% in patients with elementary education to 23.5% in university students (p = 0.04). The greatest differences were detected when applying the PHQ-9 to patients (4% pathological, elementary education vs. 35.3% pathological, university education). Our study confirms the lack of a relationship between rates of anxiety and depression and factors such as PSA level, age of the patient and number of comorbidities.

There is a high prevalence of unsuspected anxiety and depression in patients with prostate cancer and their wives. Education level correlates with such prevalence.