Anxiety in Long-Term Cancer Survivors Influences The Acceptability of Planned Discharge From Follow-Up
✍ Scribed by Sally F. Thomas; Rob Glynne-Jones; Ian Chait; David F. Marks
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 46 KB
- Volume
- 6
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1057-9249
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Anxiety levels in a sample of 65 long-term cancer survivors were assessed in a study of the effects of a planned discharge from an oncology clinic. Thirty-one percent of patients scored > or = 8, and 12% > or = 11 on the anxiety subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), indicating that anxiety rates in patients in long-standing remission do not greatly differ from patients with active disease. Despite the provision of continued support and guaranteed fast-access return to the clinic if necessary, 28% of patients refused to be discharged. Fear that recurrence would not be detected was the reason most frequently cited. Seventy-five percent of these patients were HADS anxiety cases. A second assessment 4-5 months later of the 41 patients who were discharged showed a slight, but non-significant increase in anxiety rates suggesting that anxiety in cancer survivors may be persistent and not related to clinic attendance.