Assessment of Depression in Cancer Patients receiving Chemotherapy in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: Cancer patients usually have variouspsychological complications, depression being the mostcommon among them. Depression poses difficulties incontinuing the prescribed treatment within the scheduledtime frame, ultimately affecting outcome. Study aimed todetermine the magnitude of depression and various factorsassociated with it, so as to initiate the timely intervention.Material and methods: Brief Edinburgh Depression Scale(BEDS) was used to major depression in 203 cancer patientsreceiving chemotherapy at Day Care Centre of the Departmentof Radiotherapy, SMS Medical College and attached groupof hospitals, Jaipur, Rajasthan, and VCSG GovernmentInstitute of Medical Science and Research, Srinagar, Garhwal,Uttarakhand, India during 1-30 August, 2018, who wereabove 18 years of age, and could read, understand, and write,were selected. Association of depression with various factorslike name, age, sex, contact details, education and occupationdetails, income, marital status, history of other co-morbiddisease, type and site of cancer, presence of metastases,number of chemotherapy cycle going on, source of cost oftherapy, was also computed.Results: Out of 203 patients, depression was present in130 (64%) patients. Statistically significant association ofdepression was found with both extremes of the age (P = 0.04),paid treatment (P = 0.03) and less than four chemotherapycycle (P = 0.04). No significant association was seen betweendepression and gender, occupation, performance status, site ofcancer, presence of co-existing disease and metastases.Conclusions: BEDS is a easy and reliable method to measuredepression. Depression was present in 64% of patients, andwas significantly associated with both extremes of age,paid treatment, and less than four chemotherapy cyclesadministered.

Synchronous malignancies of breast and thyroid gland: a case report and review of literature.

The relationship and coincidence of breast cancer with thyroid disorders is a subject of extensive debate and controversy. Many studies have shown that thyroid diseases are common among women with breast cancer. We present a case of concomitant malignancy of breast and thyroid with review of literature on the association of breast with thyroid neoplasm. The potential association and plausible mechanisms of breast carcinoma development after or before the thyroid carcinoma should be evaluated in larger cohorts of patients.