RT Book, Section A1 Valentine, Alan D. A2 Duffy, James D. A2 Valentine, Alan D. SR Print(0) ID 1125785106 T1 Mood Disorders T2 MD Anderson Manual of Psychosocial Oncology YR 2016 FD 2016 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071624381 LK hemonc.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1125785106 RD 2024/03/28 AB Depression in the general population is a major public health problem, its most severe form (major depression [MDD]) affecting almost 7% of American adults.1 Depressive spectrum disorders are sufficiently common in oncology that clinicians of all specialties working in the field can expect to encounter patients with presentation of these states on a daily basis. Because of the negative emotional valence associated with cancer, depression may be overlooked or ignored as a "normal" consequence of the cancer experience, not requiring or unlikely to respond to treatment (therapeutic nihilism).2 Depressive disorders adversely affect quality of life and appear to increase medical morbidity and symptom burden in cancer patients.3,4,5 Depression predicts desire for hastened death in terminally ill patients, as does hopelessness.6 There is increasing evidence that depression predicts early mortality from malignancy, although some studies have not found this to be the case.7,8,9,10,11,12 Familiarity with differential diagnosis and treatment options for depressive disorders is an essential component of comprehensive care and can do much to palliate emotional distress of patients and caregivers. Diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders can be time intensive and thus potentially problematic for clinicians with busy practices or with understandable preoccupation with therapeutic decisions or focus on more acute symptoms (ie, pain, dyspnea). However, to the extent that depressive states interfere with or complicate treatment, identification and treatment of symptoms could also make care more efficient and, possibly, less stressful for clinicians.