Citation

Ma YY, Mak KY. Hong Kong Practitioner 2012; 34(4): 154-159.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Depression is common in people with cancer. Disabilities arising from it or depression itself can be quite severe and its consequence includes poor quality of life, poor adherence to anticancer treatment, resulting in poor survival and even increased suicide risk. However, depressive disorders in cancer patients are very often under-diagnosed and under-treated by family physicians, especially in busy settings. Diagnosis of depression in cancer patients can be challenging as the patients may present with somatic symptoms, which closely mimic symptoms of cancer and/or its treatment. Indeed, validated screening tools have been developed to facilitate diagnosis and pharmacological and psycho-social treatments have been shown to be effective to treat depression in cancer patients.

Language: en

Keywords

human; suicide; depression; prevalence; major depression; review; head and neck cancer; amfebutamone; citalopram; mirtazapine; paroxetine; sertraline; tricyclic antidepressant agent; venlafaxine; tamoxifen; breast cancer; haloperidol; cancer patient; clinical examination; methylphenidate; lung cancer; pancreas cancer; DSM-IV; psychosocial withdrawal; cancer staging; medical history; gynecologic cancer; nasopharynx cancer