Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Course of disease and its treatment impacts self-image, and the sexual relationship of patient. Most patients experience Psychological reactions. Patients develop psychiatric morbidities, mainly anxiety and depressive disorders. Anxiety and depressive disorders although being common in breast cancer are ignored and left untreated. These psychiatric disorders worsen course of the disease and outcomes of treatment. Having a better understanding of common psychiatric disorders can help in planning treatment and may lead to better treatment success.

Methods: A prospective study was carried out in the Department of General Surgery at Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences And Research, Sri Amritsar. We enrolled 50 patients of carcinoma breast. Depression and Anxiety were assessed using validated scales as advised by psychiatrist- Hamilton depression rating Scale (HDRS) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), respectively. The data was collected and assessed using appropriate statistical tool.

Results: In our research the average age of women was 49.25 years. Of the 50 patients, 72% had depression. 24% of patients with depression had moderately severe to severe depression.90% of patients had anxiety disorder and 24% had moderately severe to severe anxiety disorder.

Conclusion: Depression and anxiety disorders are quiet common among the patients of breast cancer. A public health initiative compromising of social, financial and environmental support that can help in providing better quality of life for breast cancer survivors is required.