Análise da ansiedade e depressão em pacientes oncológicos atendidos ambulatorialmente no Hospital Fundação Assistencial da Paraíba.

Abstract

The diagnosis of cancer is a traumatic and stressful experience for most patients because it is a serious disease that can hinder the continuity of life. The association between depression and anxiety and clinical disease is very frequent, leading to a worse outcome both psychiatric disorders and clinical conditions, with lower adherence to treatment guidelines and greater morbidity and mortality. The objectives of this study were to analyze the global prevalence and site of tumor of anxiety and depression in patients treated as outpatients in FAP as well as establish their socioeconomic and demographic profile, using the Hospital Scale Anxiety and Depression (HADS) and socioeconomic and demographic questionnaire, covering the topics of age, sex, marital status, religion, occupational activity, economic income and education. The participants were 187 patients of both sexes, with 129 women and 58 men. The sample was random, being selected by lot, thirty-seven patients a week who attended the service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays a week, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays of the following week, on alternate shifts in total of five weeks. As a result, we found an overall prevalence of anxiety of 29.9% and 11.2% of depression, being higher in females (31.8% and 11.6%, respectively). Patients with skin cancer had a higher percentage of anxiety (50%), while those with respiratory cancer had a higher percentage of depression (50%). Therefore, depressive states, both for their prevalence and the consequences they entail, have remarkable importance as a public health problem, stressing that depression has a strong association with poor social functioning and quality of life and greater use of health resources. In this study, women, elderly people, married, widowers and patients with less education and lower socioeconomic status had the highest prevalence of anxiety and depression.