Psychiatric morbidity in pre-mastectomy patients diagnosed with breast cancer at a tertiary private hospital in Makati City

OBJECTIVES:This study aimed at identifying psychiatric problems among patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer and scheduled for mastectomy.METHODOLOGY:All the women who were diagnosed with breast cancer and were awaiting their scheduled mastectomy at the surgical clinic were interviewed using the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) and the Zung Self Rating Depression Scale. Their sociodemographic and histopathological reports were also noted.RESULTS:There were 21 women included in this study with mean age of 43.5 years. Majority (61.9%) were married and mostly high school graduates (42.8%) and unemployed i.e. 76.19% housewives. Most complained of breast pain (71.4%) while a third (38.1%) noted nipple discharge. Based on the SRQ,61.9% scored positive for mood/ anxiety and only 4.7% were found to be positive for psychosis. When rated according to the Zung Self Rating Depression Scale, 6 or 28.6% were noted to have marked depression and 5 or 23.8% had severe depression.CONCLUSION:Since most women with breast cancer in this study have been found to be positive for mood/anxiety and depression, it is recommended that screening for psychiatry morbidity should be part of the standard care and a support group manned by mental health professionals should be established as part of the holistic management.

Are Anxiety and Depression Distinct? : Exploratory Factor Analysis of Zung's Self-Rating Anxiety and Depression Scales

OBJECTIVES: There is a controversy regarding the construct validity of anxiety and depression. Some believe that these two symptoms are basically the same construct, that is, both measure what is called 'general distress' or two phenomena are distinct experiences which often coexist. To further understand relationship between anxiety and depressive symptoms, we investigated the factor structure of a combined anxiety and depression scale among psychiatric outpatients. METHODS: Data of Zung's Self-Rating Depression and Anxiety Scales were gathered from 401 newly visiting psychiatric outpatients at a university-affiliated hospital. We performed a component analysis on the 40 items from two scales. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis revealed a seven factor structure explaining 56% of total variance. Overall finding indicated that depression and anxiety scales consisted of four symptom domains : mainly depressive symptoms, mainly anxiety symptoms, common somatic symptoms, and others. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the construct of self-reported depressive and anxiety symptoms are more complex than previously thought, i.e., either one or two factor theories. These findings also support that anxiety and depression can be better modeled by dimensional approach. Clinicians may be alert for the fact that both depression and anxiety scales measure distinct and also common aspects. Further researches on other scales especially, interview based instruments are needed.

Depression and Its Infl uencing Factors among Korean Medical and Engineering Students in Urban Areas using Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale / 가정의학회지

BACKGROUND: It is a well known fact that students majoring in medicine and engineering suffer from higher stress level and depression than students in other majors. This study was done to assess the prevalence of depression and the infl uencing factors among the university students majoring in either medicine or engineering and to compare the depression prevalence between the two groups. METHODS: The study randomly selected 640 students either majoring in medicine or engineering from two universities in Kyung-Gi province, Korea. Each of 320 students majoring in either of the two majors from each university was recruited. Among 640 students, 360 students, who were composed of 172 medical students and 188 engineering students was finally chosen for the analysis. The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale was used to measure the depression state. RESULTS: The average Zung depression score of university students was 49.2 alpha 9.8. Medical students had a higher score of 52.4 alpha 9.3 as compared to engineering students, who scored 46.3 +/- 9.4. Overall depression rate was 42.8%. Medical students had a higher depression rate (52.3%) than engineering students (34.0%). The logistic analysis showed that infl uencing factors on depression state were sex, grade, major, stress and satisfactory sleep. The main source of stress for medical students was the grades from classes whereas job search was for engineering students. There were differences between the two groups in managing the stress. Medical students chose alcohol drinking or smoking for stress management whereas engineering students playing selected video games as their outlet. CONCLUSION: Medical students from urban areas seemed to be depressed more than engineering students. Their stress management methods among the subjects were drinking, smoking, and playing video games which may cause further physical and psychological problems in the future.