Psychiatric morbidity and physical toxicity associated with adjuvant chemotherapy after mastectomy

Abstract

Of 26 patients treated with CMF, 20 experienced an anxiety state compared with four of the 15 given melphalan and nine of the 18 control subjects. Depressive illness occurred more often in patients given CMF (20 patients) than in the melphalan group (five patients) or control group (nine patients). Fourteen of the 20 patients given CMF who had a satisfactory sex life before mastectomy subsequently experienced a severe loss of interest compared with three of the eight patients given melphalan and five of the 10 control subjects.