RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CANCER PAIN WITH SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION
ABSTRACT: Background Cancer pain is the end product of multifactorial and complex process, that evolves emotional, cognitive and sensoric components. Psychological disorder that a patient with cancer suffers most is from minor depression to major depression. Studies showed that the prevalance of depression in chronic pain patients and the prevalence of chronic pain in depression patients were higher than general population. Objective To determine the correlation between cancer pain and depression symptoms Methods This study was a cross-sectional study. The subjects of this study were cancer patients at Tulip Cancer Clinic, Sardjito General Hospital who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Cancer pain assessment was done using a Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) while assessment of depressive symptoms by the questionnaire Beck Depreesion Inventory (BDI). Spearman correlation test was used to assess whether there was a relationship between cancer pain and symptoms of depression Results The study involved by 54 subjects and showed a significant association between cancer pain with symptoms of depression (p=0.0001). Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.588 indicated a moderate positive correlation. Subjects were categorized into subjects with depressive symptoms and no depression and moderatesevere pain and mild pain. The study showed patients with moderate to severe pain were more at risk of experiencing depressive symptoms compared to subjects with mild pain (OR 4.583, 95% CI 1.442 to 14.571 , p = 0.008). Multivariate analysis showed that gender variable was a confounding factor influencing the relationship between cancer pain with symptoms of depression. Conclusion There was a positive relationship between cancer pain with symptoms of depression. Sex was a confounding factor influencing the relationship between cancer pain with symptoms of depression.
