Evidence Report on the Occurrence, Assessment, and Treatment of Depression in Cancer Patients

This evidence-based report reviews the empiric literature on depression in people with cancer with a focus on three areas: occurrence, assessment, and treatment. More than 350 studies were identified through searches of the English-language literature published between 1966 and September 2001. Reports of occurrence are limited to prevalence studies, and prevalence rates vary widely de-spite standardized assessments. Rates of major depressive disorder and depressive symptoms comorbid with cancer appear to be 10%–25%. Although multiple instruments are available for assessing depressive symptoms, a clinical interview using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Men-tal Disorders criteria is the standard to which assessments are compared. Some data exist for the efficacy of psycho-social and pharmacologic treatments for depression in thi