New Approach for Cancer-Related Depression

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are seeing promising results with a new program for treating depression in cancer patients, according to a new study published in The Lancet.

The program, which is administered by specially-trained cancer nurses, is designed to work in tandem with the patient's normal cancer care. It involves depression screening, antidepressant medication and teaching patients problem-solving skills.

The researchers screened patients with several different types of cancer - including breast, colorectal, gynecological, blood, lung and others - for symptoms of depression. Of the 200 patients identified with depression, 99 were selected to receive usual care and 101 received usual care plus the depression program.

The heart of the depression program was a manual called Depression Care of People with Cancer, authored by study author Michael Sharpe, MD, which covered such topics as taking antidepressants appropriately, staying active and learning how to cope with your problems.

After three months, depression scores dropped in both groups, but dropped significantly more for the group assigned to the depression program. At 6 and 12 months, the scores were much the same, with the program group still doing better.

"Our results were encouraging, surprisingly long-lasting, and the costs were relatively modest," said Sharpe. "This shows that treating depression can work well when it's part and parcel of a patient's cancer care. However, there's more work that needs to be done to show that this approach can work in practice before we can recommend implementation of this model on a large scale."