Psychiatric disturbance in Hodgkin's disease

We describe the onset of psychotic depression in a young man receiving intensive therapy for Hodgkin's disease. We have found other examples of psychiatric disturbance in the course of reviewing the charts of 40 men with Hodgkin's disease and 20 with testicular cancer. We propose that patients with oncologic disease and their families receive counseling before initiation of treatment and be advised about the availability of psychiatric help should it become necessary.