Login to Access Video or Poster Abstract: MP14-11
Sources of Funding: Urologic Oncology Research Foundation

Introduction

While being given a diagnosis of cancer may result in psychological distress, formal mental health counseling does not routinely follow the bad news. Whether the severity of anxiety and depression resulting from a cancer diagnosis warrants concurrent psychological counseling is poorly understood. _x000D_ _x000D_

Methods

With appropriate consent, IRB approval, and a monitoring psychiatrist, we prospectively administered the validated Beck Anxiety and Beck Depression Inventories to 50 consecutive untreated, recently diagnosed prostate cancer (PCa) patients and 50 age matched control patients without cancer. Each inventory consisted of 21 items rated 0 to 3 by the patient to quantify the severity of anxiety and depression (minimal depression: 0 to 13, mild: 14 to 19, moderate: 20 to 28, severe: 29 to 63) (low anxiety: 0 to 21, moderate: 22 to 35, severe: >35). Anxiety scores >35 or depression scores > 28 were considered worthy of a mental health evaluation. Anxiety and depression levels were compared between cases and controls and correlated with tumor grade.

Results

Recently diagnosed PCa patients exhibited higher mean depression levels (11.1 vs. 3.7) (median: 9 vs. 3) and higher anxiety levels (14.2 vs. 2.2; median: 15 vs. 1) compared with controls (p< 0.05) but no patients exhibited severe anxiety or depression requiring a formal mental health referral. Patients with tumor grade group 3 or higher (16/50) tended to have higher mean depression scores (14.0 vs. 10.1) and anxiety scores (16.1 vs. 12.0) than those with group grade < 3 (34/50) but this was not statistically significant.

Conclusions

While recently diagnosed PCa patients exhibited higher anxiety and depression levels than controls, on average these were mild and no patients displayed severe levels justifying a formal mental health referral.

Funding

Urologic Oncology Research Foundation