Even though colorectal cancer (CRC) patients have a very high survival rate, a considerable proportion of this group continues to have physical and mental issues as a result of cancer and its treatment.
Bowel Cancer Patients May Suffer From Depression
This could have a detrimental impact on their quality of life in terms of health (HRQOL). Although the medical impacts of CRC (colorectal cancer) and its treatment receive a lot of emphasis in the literature, the psychosocial issues that CRC (colorectal cancer) survivors face receive less attention.
According to a recent review, very little research focused on anxiety and depression symptoms in long-term CRC survivors.
Dr. Calman continued, “in this study, we investigated risk factors of depression at two key time points: close to diagnosis before surgery and two years after surgery when routine oncological check-ups end.
As a result, we conducted secondary analyses on our large population-based study of CRC survivors diagnosed between 1 and 10 years before study enrollment. We included clinical data and compared our findings to a control group.
The study’s objectives were to
- compare the baseline prevalence of anxiety and depression among CRC survivors to age and sex-matched normative population
- prospectively assess the course of anxiety and depression symptoms over four years
- identify subgroups with high fluctuating and low levels of anxiety and depression over time
- assess the impact of anxiety and depression symptoms on HRQOL
The institute had information on survivors’ sociodemographic and clinical features. The questionnaires also yielded information on other pertinent sociodemographic and clinical aspects example, marital status, educational level, and current occupation. The modified Self-Administered Comorbidity Questionnaire was used to measure comorbidity in the previous 12 months.
“Depression in people living with cancer can lead to poor health and wellbeing, and this has an impact on long-term outcomes. Recognizing those colorectal cancer patients who are at a higher risk and referring them to the right support services could therefore lead to overall improved outcomes for patients,” Dr. Calman added.
More focus is needed on the psychosocial repercussions of CRC in the expanding population of CRC survivors. Even though this is a new research area, more attention is needed, particularly because psychosocial is such a broad word, and research on long-term CRC survivors is still sparse.
More depressive symptoms were linked to a shorter period after diagnosis being male and being older. Interestingly being a man and being older were linked to reduced anxiety symptoms. Low education and comorbid diseases were linked to more anxiety and depression symptoms, whereas marital status was linked to fewer.
Our findings are consistent with the existing research on the subject. Treatment and illness stage were not connected with anxiety and depression symptoms in our study, which was an unexpected finding. Literature is scarce on this subject. An investigation of CRC (colorectal cancer) patients up to 5 years following diagnosis disease stage did predict high global discomfort.
There are a few limitations to the current study that should be mentioned. First, even though information on nonrespondents’ sociodemographic and clinical characteristics was available, it is unclear if they withdrew to participate due to poor health or depressive symptoms.
It’s possible that a higher proportion of depressed individuals were nonrespondents because they’re less likely to take the initiative and therefore answer questionnaires.
Finally, nearly 1 in 5 survivors reported persistent anxiety and depressive symptoms years after their diagnosis, which was greater than the normative population’s prevalence of 1 in 8, and these figures remained rather consistent over time. Higher levels of sadness and anxiety symptoms were independently linked to a lower quality of life over time.
