Long-term cancer survivors are not at a much higher risk of developing depression compared with healthy people, but they are more likely to experience anxiety.
The finding was published today in The Lancet Oncology and outlines that not only are the survivors at risk for anxiety, but their partners face similar levels of depression and higher levels of anxiety than the survivors themselves.
Lead author Alex Mitchell from Leicester General Hospital in the UK said:
“Depression is an important problem after cancer but it tends to improve within 2 years of a diagnosis unless there is a further complication. Anxiety is less predictable and is a cause for concern even 10 years after a diagnosis. However, detection of anxiety has been overlooked compared with screening for distress or depression”
By 2020, the number of people diagnosed with cancer annually is expected to exceed 21 million.
Cancer survivors are living longer – close to 70% of patients live for at least five years after diagnosis, however, not much is known about cancer’s impact on the mental health of survivors and their families.
The current study revealed that while levels of depression in adult cancer survivors two years or longer after diagnosis are almost identical to adults with no history of cancer (11.6% vs 10.2%), survivors are significantly more likely to develop anxiety (27%), increasing to 50% likelihood in the 10 years or more after diagnosis.
Additionally, survivors and their partners seem to experience similar levels of depression, but partners seemed to experience even more anxiety than survivors (28% vs. 40.1%).
The meta-analysis and systematic review analyzed 43 comparisons in 27 publications involving close to half a million participants, documenting the prevalence of anxiety and depression in adults with cancer at least two years following diagnosis.
Mitchell concluded:
“Our results suggest that, after a cancer diagnosis, increased rates of anxiety tend to persist in both patients and their relatives. When patients are discharged from hospital care they usually receive only periodic check-ups from their medical teams and this autonomy in the post-acute period can be anxiety provoking.
Further, the provision of rehabilitation and specialist emotional help is currently patchy. Efforts should be made to improve screening for anxiety and increase follow-up support for both survivors and their families.”
A similar study conducted in 2007 suggested that partners of cancer survivors are at risk for the same stresses as cancer survivors themselves over the long term. In some cases these partners experienced more quality of life-related effects than the survivors.
Written by Kelly Fitzgerald