Prevalence and type of psychiatric co-morbidity among patients of malignancy in a tertiary care hospital of northern part of india

Introduction: Cancer is a multisystem illness which is characterized by abnormal growth of cells. Cancer has an effect on physical and emotional wellbeing of patients and their families. The diagnosis of cancer itself is a stressful event causing significant psychological distress as cancer is a serious and potentially life-threatening illness. The aim of the present study was to find out the prevalence and type of psychiatric co-morbidity among cancer patients.
Material and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at the Indira Gandhi medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. We recruited all adults (≥ 18 years) histopathologically diagnosed patients with any type of malignancy from Radio-therapy Department of institute. Diagnosis of psychiatric disorders was made according to International classification of diseases-10 (ICD-10)
Results and conclusions: There were total 226 participants in our study. The Mean age (standard deviation) of participants was 51.3 (12.8) years ranging from 18 to 83 years. The prevalence of Psychiatric co-morbidity in our study came out to be 35% (95% Confidence Interval 29-42%). Out of 226 patients Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) was found in maximum number of patients (12.4%) followed by Mixed Anxiety and Depression (7.5%).