Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: Cancer is associated with mental stress and depression that hinders the treatment of cancer. Hence, screening for depression is very important for proper care of cancer patients. Objectives: To asses depression is newly diagnosed cancer patients. Materials and methods: 65 newly diagnosed cancer patients were involved in the study. Depression in these patients were screened and quantified using two scales namely HADS and HAM-D Result: On screening with HADS 26.01 %, 26.1% and 47.7% of patients showed normal state, mild depression and symptomatic depression respectively, while with the use of HAM-D, we found that majority of cancer patients presented very severe depression (40%) followed by severe (16.9%) and moderate (15.4%). Conclusion: We found that most of the cancer patients undergo moderate to severe depression state, thereby alarming the conditions requiring proper care and management to have beneficial clinical outcomes. Keywords: Cancer Depression, HADS, HAM-D