Level of depression in cancer patients seeking treatment at cancer diseases hospital in Zambia

Depression is common in cancer patients, particularly those with advanced disease. It may however occur at any stage that is from diagnosis and throughout treatment. Although the existence of the relationship between depression and cancer has been investigated for a few years now, little has been done to include psycho-therapy in the management of depression in cancer patients. As a result, patients during treatment would display some characteristics such as low performance status, low social support and low compliance in palliative care. With these factors, this raises questions on whether much is being done to effectively manage patients as a whole that is physically, emotionally and psychologically. Based on this, this study’s aim was to investigate the prevalence of depression in cancer patients seen at the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Zambia, using a self-rating scale called Beck Depressing Inventory. Participants in the study were recruited from the cancer diseases hospital out- patient department by random sampling. Out of these, one hundred cancer patients were assessed for depression using the self-rating scale and 15% had borderline clinical depression, 20% had moderate depression. 1% of the patients reported severe depression, 44% reported normal to mild mood disturbance and 20% had no depression.  Female patients reported significantly more depression than the males.