medwireNews: Almost a third of adult patients with high-grade glioma have a mental health comorbidity, suggests German research.
Susanne Singer (University Medical Centre of Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany) and associates focused on so-called common mental health disorders, explaining that the term “refers to a group of disorders typically encountered in community and primary care settings, comprising different types of depression and anxiety.”
They used baseline data from cluster-randomized clinical trial of two types of screening for psychosocial care that enrolled adult patients with high-grade glioma from 13 neuro-oncology clinics in Germany. After enrollment and the first consultation with a physician, the participants were interviewed by trained nurses with the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (SCID), “which is considered to be a gold‐standard instrument for such purposes,” explain the researchers.
A total of 691 participants were interviewed with the SCID – they were aged an average of 52 years, 57% were men, and the majority (59%) had a diagnosis of glioblastoma. Nineteen percent of the patients were in complete remission, 10% were in partial remission, 57% had stable disease, and 13% had progressive disease.
In all, 31% were diagnosed with at least one common mental health disorder, with post-traumatic stress disorder in 10%, persistent depressive disorder in 8%, generalized anxiety disorder in 7%, major depressive episode in 6%, adjustment disorder in 4%, and alcohol use disorder in 1%.
“To put these numbers into context, in Germany, the 12‐month prevalence of PTSD was 2% in an interview‐based study with 5303 participants,” write Singer and colleagues.
“Depression, persistent depressive disorder, and major depression combined occurred in 14% of patients with glioma (in Germany, 9%), generalized anxiety disorder occurred in 7% (in Germany, 2%), alcohol use disorder occurred in 1% (in Germany, 2%), and adjustment disorder occurred in 4% (in Germany, not assessed),” they continue.
The team also identified “potential risk factors for common mental disorders” in this patient population, finding that age younger than 50 years was associated with a significant 1.9-fold increased risk relative to an age of 65 years or older.
Other factors associated with a significantly increased risk were stable disease versus complete remission (odds ratio [OR]=1.7), lower versus higher monthly income (€1000–1499 vs ≥€1500; OR=1.7), and living alone (OR=1.6).
Finally, impaired self-reported cognitive functioning and fatigue were also associated with a significantly greater likelihood of developing common mental health disorders (ORs=2.3 and 1.6, respectively).
“Knowing the potential predictors of comorbid mental disorders in patients with high‐grade glioma may help to ascertain which patients should be offered specialized services, in addition to inquiring about their emotional well‐being and psychosocial support needs,” write the researchers in Cancer.
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