Psychiatric Diagnoses and Their Treatment in Women With Breast Cancer: A Latent Class Analysis of 1062 Inpatients

Psycho-oncological support (POS) and psychopharmacological interventions are effective in treating psychiatric symptoms in patients with breast cancer. However, despite high prevalences of psychiatric disorders in patients with breast cancer, a significant proportion remains untreated.

Data from 1062 breast cancer patients who had been diagnosed and treated at a Comprehensive Cancer Center between 2012 and 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. We descriptively evaluated the number of patients with a psychiatric diagnosis, POS and psychiatric medication. Latent class analysis was used to examine the relationship between ICD-10 coded psychiatric diagnoses, POS, psychiatric medication, and, as important prognostic factors, tumor stage and somatic comorbidity.

31.5% of all patients had a psychiatric diagnosis, 20% received POS and up to 60% received psychiatric medication. Latent class analysis revealed three subgroups: 1) patients with a low cancer stage, low somatic comorbidity, no psychiatric diagnosis, no POS and no psychiatric medication; 2) patients with a low cancer stage, low somatic comorbidity, a psychiatric diagnosis, and a higher probability of POS and psychiatric medication than class 1 and class 3; 3) patients with advanced cancer stage, high somatic comorbidity, a higher probability of a psychiatric diagnosis and POS than class 1, and no psychiatric medication.

This study indicated a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders among patients with breast cancer and a discrepancy between the number of patients having a psychiatric disorder and those receiving psychiatric medication. The identification of subgroups might contribute to better tailored treatment for those patients whose needs are insufficiently met.