Psychosocial well-being among patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Objectives: The investigators conducted a psychosocial needs assessment of mesothelioma patients through self-report measures of quality of life (QOL), coping, depression, and social support.

Methods: Patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) ( = 67) completed a battery of assessments at a single timepoint after being approached during routine medical oncology clinic appointments or by letter.

Results: Participants were predominately male (70.

Cancer and Aging: Reflections for Elders (CARE): A pilot randomized controlled trial of a psychotherapy intervention for older adults with cancer.

Objective: Cancer and Aging: Reflections for Elders (CARE) is a novel, telephone-delivered intervention designed to alleviate distress in older cancer patients. This pilot randomized controlled trial tested the feasibility and initial efficacy of CARE, drawing from age-appropriate developmental themes and well-established coping theory.

Method: Eligible patients were ≥70 years old; ≥6 months post-diagnosis of lung, prostate, breast, lymphoma, or gynecological cancer; on active cancer treatment or within 6 months of ending cancer treatment; and had elevated scores on the Distress Thermometer (≥4) or Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (≥6).

Psychosocial Distress Screening: An Educational Program's Impact on Participants' Goals for Screening Implementation in Routine Cancer Care.

Background: Psychosocial distress screening is a quality care standard in cancer care. Screening implementation may be facilitated by an educational program that uses goals to evaluate progress over time.

Objectives: This article describes the content and design of the Screening for Psychosocial Distress Program (SPDP), reports on its delivery to 36 paired participants, and evaluates its effects on distress screening activities and goals.

Psycho-oncology: Overview, obstacles and opportunities.

Worldwide, psychological and social issues in cancer were not the subject of scientific inquiry until the past two decades. Since then, a new subspecialty of oncology has evolved, psycho-oncology. It addresses two dimensions of cancer: the emotional responses of patients at all stages of disease, as well as their families and caretakers (psychosocial); and the pyschological, social and behavioral factors that may influence cancer morbidity and mortality (psychobiological).

Physical Symptom Burden and Its Association With Distress, Anxiety, and Depression in Breast Cancer.

Background: Physical symptom burden and psychologic symptoms are highly prevalent in women with breast cancer. The Distress Thermometer and Problem List (DT&PL) is commonly used in oncology clinics to screen for distress and its accompanying Physical Problem List (PPL) identifies pertinent physical symptoms.

Objective: We sought to identify physical symptoms found on the PPL and evaluate whether they are associated with psychologic symptoms in women with breast cancer.

Associations of Physical and Psychologic Symptom Burden in Patients With Philadelphia Chromosome-Negative Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.

Background: The physical symptom burden of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) may last for extended periods during their disease trajectories and lead to psychologic distress, anxiety, or depression or all of these.

Objective: This study evaluated the relationship between physical symptom burden captured by the Physical Problem List (PPL) on the Distress Thermometer and Problem List and psychologic outcomes (distress, anxiety, and depression) in the MPN setting.

Methods: Patients (N = 117) with MPNs completed questionnaires containing the Distress Thermometer and Problem List and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in a dedicated MPN clinic within an academic medical center.

Prevalence of physical problems detected by the distress thermometer and problem list in patients with breast cancer.

Background: Patients with breast cancer have high rates of physical symptoms that negatively impact their quality of life. The relationship between women's perceptions of these physical symptoms and patient demographic and breast cancer characteristics is less well known. This study describes physical symptoms of patients with breast cancer and their relationship with patient characteristics.

Prevalence and predictors of depression, pain, and fatigue in older- versus younger-adult cancer survivors.

Background: As the number of older adults in the United States continues to grow, there will be increasing demands on health care providers to address the needs of this population. Cancer is of particular importance, with over half of all cancer survivors older than 65 years. In addition, depression, pain, and fatigue are concerns for older adults with cancer and have been linked to poorer physical outcomes.

Prevalence of Physical Problems Detected by the Distress Thermometer and Problem List in Patients With Myeloproliferative Disorders.

Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) can have a severe physical symptom burden over an extended disease trajectory that contributes to decreased quality of life. Few studies, however, have characterized which patients most frequently consider physical symptoms a problem. This study describes the physical symptoms of patients with MPNs and the relationship of these symptoms to patient characteristics.

Setting the stage for universal financial distress screening in routine cancer care.

Financial burden from cancer treatment is increasingly being recognized as a threat to optimal access, quality, and outcomes of cancer care for patients. Although research in the area is moving at a fast pace, multiple questions remain unanswered, such as how to practically integrate the assessment and management of financial burden into routine health care delivery for patients with cancer. Although psychological distress screening for patients undergoing cancer treatment now is commonplace, the authors raise the provocative idea of universal screening for financial distress to identify and assist vulnerable groups of patients.

Communicating About Precision Oncology.

Communication in oncology has always been challenging. The new era of precision medicine complicates communication even further as a result of our increasing reliance on genomic data and the varying psychological responses to genomic-based treatments and their expected outcomes. The crux of the matter hinges on understanding communication.

The management of psychological issues in oncology.

Psychological issues in the cancer setting are highly prevalent and well documented, and can lead to adverse outcomes. Several series of guidelines have been put forth to ensure that both psychological and psychiatric issues are addressed. The management of psychological issues in cancer is relevant for clinicians whose patients are identified clinically or via screening mechanisms with psychological or psychiatric sequelae from cancer.

Psychological Manifestations of Early Childhood Adversity in the Context of Chronic Hematologic Malignancy.

Background: Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of chronic hematologic malignancies, carry significant physical and psychological symptom burdens that significantly affect patients' quality of life.

Objectives: We sought to identify the relationship between early childhood adversity (ECA) and psychological distress in patients with MPNs, as ECA may compound symptom burden.

Methods: Patients with MPNs were assessed for ECA (i.

Psychological Symptoms Among Patients With BCR-ABL-Negative Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.

Background: BCR-ABL-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) represent a heterogeneous group of diseases, including essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and myelofibrosis (MF). Psychological manifestations among these diseases have not been adequately described.

Methods: Cross-sectional surveys measuring distress, anxiety, and depression were collected from patients with BCR-ABL-negative MPNs from May 2015 to October 2015.

Preferences of Patients With Myeloproliferative Neoplasms for Accepting Anxiety or Depression Treatment.

Background: Patients with chronic hematologic malignancies such as myeloproliferative neoplasms suffer from significant physical and psychological symptom burden. This study examined their willingness to accept an antidepressant and their preferences for which provider (mental health professional or hematologist/oncologist) prescribes an antidepressant for the management of anxiety and depression.

Methods: Anxiety and depression treatment preferences were measured with 3 questions assessing: (1) willingness to accept an antidepressant, (2) willingness to have their hematologist/oncologist prescribe the antidepressant, and (3) preference for treatment by a psychiatrist or mental health professional.

Development of the Bereavement Risk Inventory and Screening Questionnaire (BRISQ): Item generation and expert panel feedback.

Objective: Following the loss of a loved one to cancer, a significant subset of bereaved family members are at heightened risk for mental and physical health problems; however, these family members often "fall through the cracks" of the healthcare system. A brief, clinically useful self-report bereavement risk-screening tool could facilitate more effective identification of family members in need of psychosocial support before and after a cancer loss. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop and refine the Bereavement Risk Inventory and Screening Questionnaire (BRISQ), a self-report bereavement screening tool, and to assess its utility using feedback from bereavement experts.

Early Childhood Adversity and its Associations With Anxiety, Depression, and Distress in Women With Breast Cancer.

Background: Certain vulnerability factors have been found to place patients at risk for depression and anxiety, especially within the context of medical illness.

Objectives: We sought to describe the relationships among early childhood adversity (ECA) and anxiety, depression and distress in patients with breast cancer.

Methods: Patients with breast cancer (stages 0-IV) were assessed for ECA (i.

ReCAP: Would Women With Breast Cancer Prefer to Receive an Antidepressant for Anxiety or Depression From Their Oncologist?

Purpose: Patient treatment preferences for the management of anxiety and depression influence adherence to treatment and treatment outcomes, yet the preferences of patients with breast cancer for provider-specific pharmacologic management of anxiety and depression is unknown. This study examined the antidepressant prescriber preferences of patients with breast cancer and their preferences for treatment by a mental health professional.

Methods: Patients with breast cancer (stages 0 to IV) were asked two questions: “Would you be willing to have your oncologist treat your depression or anxiety with an antidepressant medication if you were to become depressed or anxious at any point during your treatment?” and “Would you prefer to be treated by a psychiatrist or mental health professional for problems with either anxiety or depression?” In addition, the Distress Thermometer and Problem List, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Risky Families Questionnaire, and demographic information were assessed.

The Roots of Psychosomatic Medicine II: George L. Engel.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to examine and appreciate the contributions of George Libman Engel, MD, to psychosomatic medicine.

Conclusion: Engel was a prolific researcher, medical educator, and writer who championed the biopsychosocial model, which has been widely embraced and practiced in psychiatry and medicine to this day. In the late 1970s, when Engel published his seminal article on the biopsychosocial model, the dominant model of medicine was still the biomedical model.

Psychological Distress of Internal Medicine Residents Rotating on a Hematology and Oncology Ward: An Exploratory Study of Patient Deaths, Personal Stress, and Attributed Meaning.

Objective: Effectively managing patient distress in oncology is challenging. Trainees in oncology experience distress along with their patients and patients' families, especially during an inpatient admission. This study evaluated the physician-in-training experience while working on an inpatient hematology-oncology ward.

Reinforcing the role of psycho-social oncology in global cancer prevention: applying psycho-oncology research in programmes and practice.

Over the past decade, global action to address the emerging crisis in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has escalated. Central to these efforts has been the support and influence of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations with the 2000 civil societies represented by the Non-Communicable Disease Alliance. In particular this reached expression in the world's first High Level Meeting on NCDs by the United Nations leading to the 2011 Political Declaration urging a coordinated global response to NCDs.

Psycho-oncology and primary prevention in cancer control plans: an absent voice?

Background: One third of cancer deaths are attributable to modifiable lifestyle, behaviour and psychosocial risk factors. Psycho-oncology can contribute significantly to prevention initiatives such as those described in national cancer control plans (NCCPs), to reduce or eliminate these risk factors. However, the extent to which psycho-oncology expertise has informed prevention objectives in plans is unclear.