Psychiatric treatment and psychosocial support may make a significant difference to survival and quality of life in women with cancer, a patient population with high rates of depression and anxiety, according to 2 studies presented here at the American Psychiatric Association 2011 Annual Meeting.
In the first study, a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 125 women with metastatic breast cancer, investigators found that the median survival time for those who had decreasing depression symptom scores during a 1-year period was double that of those with increasing scores (53.6 vs 25.1 months).
"We were surprised at how big this difference was. It shows that treatment of depression, both psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic, is feasible and effective even in advanced cancer," David Spiegel, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, California, and Stanford's Center on Stress and Health, told Medscape Medical News.
"Although the intervention we used wasn't associated with increased survival, we were able to show that decreasing depression may improve not only the quality but also the quantity of life for these women," added Dr. Spiegel.
In the second study, which was published online March 2 in Psycho-Oncology, researchers found that women who receive a cancer diagnosis during pregnancy were at particular risk of experiencing high levels of distress.
"Physicians should pay particular attention to several early markers of distress suggesting a need for referral to psychological supports. This may lead to improved long-term quality of life for both the women and for their children," Melissa Henry, PhD, from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.
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