Abstract

Background: Depression and anxiety disorders are common among lung cancer patients posing serious problem of treatment interruption, thereby poor prognosis and deterioration of quality of life.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to find the prevalence of depression and anxiety among lung cancer patients and their respective determinants.

Materials and Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional prospective study was conducted at the Department of Pulmonary Medicine of a tertiary care hospital at Kolkata over a period of 6 months. Patients were included by complete enumeration method, and an exit interview was conducted with the help of two standardized questionnaires: WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 to assess disability and Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview English Version 5.0.0 DSM-IV to detect current major depressive episode (MDE) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Collected data were entered and analyzed in SPSS 20.0 software.

Results: A total of 210 patients were recruited. Nearly three-fourths of the study population (73.7%) were suffering from current GAD; a significant portion (42.1%) was suffering from current MDE. Both the disorders were diagnosed in 42.1% cases. Multivariate analyses revealed that patients who were currently unemployed or retired, time since diagnosis more than 1 month and suffering from higher degree of disability had higher risk of depression; while patients who were residing at urban area, currently not earning, financially dependent to others and suffering from higher degree of disability had greater risk of developing anxiety during the course of the disease.

Conclusion: Both depression and anxiety were quite prevalent among lung cancer patients. Social and psychological supports are to be raised to achieve treatment success and a better quality of life by mitigating this problem.

Key words: Anxiety; Depression; Lung Cancer; Mini-international Neuropsychiatric Interview; WHO Disability Assessment Schedule