When Does Cancer Equal Depression?

Ivanhoe Newswire
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- No one would expect someone with advanced cancer to have the sunniest of dispositions. But when does normal sadness related to the disease become full-blown depression?

That's what British researchers set out to determine with a new survey called the Brief Edinburgh Depression Scale, or BEDS. They based the tool on a depression scale used to uncover post partum depression in new moms, finding six out of the original 10 measures were effective in picking up depression in cancer patients.

Questions on the survey cover self blame, fearfulness, feelings of not being in control, unhappiness, sadness, and thoughts of suicide. Overall, about a quarter of the patients were found to have previously undiagnosed depression.

The authors believe identifying depression in cancer patients can lead to earlier treatment with proven medications and other therapies aimed at helping people cope with the condition.

"Depression has a huge impact on patients with advanced cancer -- influencing the severity of pain and other symptoms, and greatly reducing quality of life," writes study author Mari Lloyd-Williams. "We hope our test will be introduced as a routine part of cancer care so patients' quality of life can be improved in dealing with such a distressing disease."

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Journal of Affective Disorders, published online Jan. 25, 2007