Higher stress and symptom severity are associated with worse depressive symptom profiles in patients receiving chemotherapy.
Kate Oppegaard, Joosun Shin, Carolyn S Harris and 9 others
PMID 35397404WHAT IT FOUND
In 1327 chemotherapy patients, more depressive symptoms were linked to higher stress, lower resilience, and worse fatigue, sleep, pain, and attention.
Assessing these symptoms together may help identify patients who need psychosocial support.
Key findings
01Patients grouped into four depressive symptom profiles: None 47.3%, Subsyndromal 33.6%, Moderate 13.8%, High 5.3%.
02Higher depressive symptom profiles were associated with higher perceived stress, cancer-related distress, lifetime trauma and PTSD scores, and lower resilience.
03Higher depressive symptom profiles were also associated with worse anxiety, sleep disturbance, fatigue, attention, pain interference, and lower energy.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Stress and resilience were measured only once, so the study cannot show how they changed over time. The sample was relatively similar in gender, ethnicity, education, and income, so the results may not apply to more diverse patients. Medications for depression were not collected, so treatment may have affected the depression scores. Patients who refused participation were often overwhelmed by cancer treatment, so the study may have undercounted severe depression. Depression was measured by self-report, not diagnostic interview, so some positive screens may not mean major depression. The study is observational, so it cannot prove that stress, low resilience, or co-occurring symptoms caused worse depression.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not report funding sources or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that stress, low resilience, or co-occurring symptoms caused depression, or that treating them will improve depression. This observational study only reports associations between patient-reported symptoms and depression profiles.