Depressive disorder: subdiagnosis in woman with gynecological neoplasms

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The cancer is one of the main causes of mortality in Brazil. In this ontext it has been noticed that the information about cancer diagnosis is a common medical practice which could imply in psychological, physical and interpersonal changes. Approximately 30 percent of the patients with cancer develop widespread apprehension, depression and mental disorder in the first year after the diagnosis. Therefore, it is important that the health professional has to be able to recognize these alterations and to conduct them better on the moment of diagnosis and the therapeutic options discuss. Objective: To evaluate female genital neoplasms diagnosis’ impact in life of patients and their families. Casuistic and methods: Women with confirmed female genital neoplasms are submitted to a questionnaire to evaluate sociodemografics characters, impressions in the diagnosis’ moment, health conditions, quality of life and depressive symptoms. Results: The serene feeling in the moment of diagnosis is requent in the major than 50 year old women (p=0002). The knowledge about their own illness is higher as higher is patient’s school age (p=0013). A half of patients present depressive symptoms. There is no difference between the presence of symptoms and the time of diagnosis (p=0781), age (p=0711) and school age (p=0145). The more frequently doubts referred by patients are about disease’s cure and its recurrence. Conclusions: The results suggest that women with female genital neoplasms are frequently committed by doubts and depressive symptoms that are rarely identified without appropriate instruments of evaluation. The health professional has to pay attention to the psychosocial aspect related directly with quality of life.