ABSTRACT ASSESSMENT OF DEPRESSION AMONG CANCER PATIENTS IN DISTRICT CANCER CENTRE, KOZHENCHERRY. KERALA.

Depression can be a complicating problem for chronic medical illness including cancer. Depression in cancer patients goes unrecognized for several reasons as it is misinterpreted to reaction to diagnosis or it is viewed as a side effect of cancer treatments, if left undiagnosed and untreated, the implications are enormous like complications in treatment, prolonged hospital stays and greater suffering and mortality. Depressed patients are also more likely to commit suicide or request physician assisted suicide. Depression complicates patients efforts to cope with illness and adhere to medical treatment. Serious depression may impact on cancer prognosis. Doctors and nurses will need to improve their skills in the detection of psychological morbidity, especially major depression. patients and improve their quality of life. The objecti e! o" the !t#$% &e'e( !. "o assess the level of depression among cancer patients. #. "o find out the influence of selected demographic and disease condition on level of depression. "he study was conducted in District $ancer $entre, %ozhencherry, %erala. &atients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected for the study, 'orty si( cancer patients were assessed for depression using depression assessment tool, )ecks Depression *nventory Scale. "he data were collected by means of semi structured interview and from medical records. "he data tool was validated and the reliability was determined by the pilot study. ccurate detection and treatment of depression may improve survival in cancer

M)jo' Fi*$i*+! o" the St#$%( !. +ajority of the cancer patients, that is, ,-.. percent of the ./ patients were in the age group of /!01-. #. mong the forty si( patients, ,2 percent of the patients were married. ,. *t was found that 3!., percent of the total ./ patients were completely dependent on their family members for emotional support, whereas only 1/ percent of the total ./ patients are dependent on family members for financial support. .. ,/.3 percent of the total ./ patients were found to be in the stage . of cancer. 4. +ore than half of the patients 54#.!67 were undergoing chemotherapy. /. "he level of depression among cancer patients who participated in the study was found to be as follows8 4- percent had e(treme depression, .!.. percent had severe depression and 2./ percent had moderate depression. 1. "here is a positive correlation between the age and the level of depression among the cancer patients, as the %arl &earsons $o relation $oefficient is positive, the r value is -..2. "here is a negative correlation between income and level of depression among the cancer patients, the r value is 0-.-3 3. "here is a positive correlation between duration of illness and the level of depression among the cancer patients, the r value is -.,! !-. positive correlation was found between the stage of illness and the level of depression among the cancer patients, the r value is -.,2