Mental Health Screening Tools for Cancer Patients, and Their Caregivers: An Umbrella Review

Cancer negatively affects patients' physical status as well as their mental health, increasing the burden of family members and caregivers as well. Thus, the screening of psychological and cognitive functioning is key for the referral to mental health specialists.

Identify available and validated screening tools to assess psychological, psychosocial and cognitive impairment in cancer patients (adults and children), caregivers and family members.

An umbrella review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. The search strategy was applied to five databases. Reviewers screened titles/abstracts, and the articles included in this initial phase were retrieved for full-text assessment. All conflicts during the screening phase were discussed, and a third reviewer was consulted if discrepancies were not solved. A narrative synthesis and tabulated summaries of results were conducted.

A total of 2304 records were initially identified through systematic searches. Following screening and eligibility assessment, 67 systematic reviews were included. Across the included reviews, 586 different tools were identified and classified into nine thematic domains: (1) Anxiety and Depression, (2) General Mental Disorders, (3) Distress and Fear of Cancer Recurrence, (4) Body Image, Sexuality, and Self-Perception, (5) Caregiving and Social Impact, (6) Cognitive Functioning, (7) Coping Assessment, (8) Unmet Needs, and (9) Other miscellaneous constructs.

A wide variety of mental health screening tools are available, covering key psychosocial and cognitive aspects relevant to cancer care. Although most instruments were not specifically developed for oncological populations, many have been validated in this context and appear to perform adequately.