Are We Aware of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Acute Leukemia?

Abstract

Background: Acute leukemia poses a high risk of stress for the patient during the process of diagnosis. The process after the diagnosis is challenging for the patient due to urgent admission, long duration of stay in hospital, chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment and the disease itself. Evaluating this group of patients for anxiety and depression, providing necessary professional support and revising medical treatment is therefore substantial. Aims: In our study, we aimed to assess the risks of anxiety and depression in newly diagnosed acute leukemia patients who were admitted to hematology clinic to receive chemotherapy and provide necessary professional support along with treatment revisions and follow-up according to our findings. Methods:Our study was performed with newly diagnosed acute leukemia patients, who were admitted to our hospital hematology clinic in a six-month period to receive chemotherapy. Demographic characteristics were noted and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADs) was used to assess depression. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADs) is an assessment scale developed by Zigmond and Snaith to determine the risks and assess the severity of anxiety and depression (8). The validation and reliability studies of the scale in Turkey were carried out by Aydemir et al (9). The questionnaire has a total of 14 items; seven of which measure anxiety (odd numbers) and the remaining seven (even numbers) measure depression. Each item is scored from 0 to 3. The scoring order of each item in the questionnaire is different. Items numbered 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 13 indicate decreasing severity and are scored as 3-2-1-0. On the other hand; items numbered 2, 4, 7, 9, 12 and 14 indicate increasing severity and are scored as 0-1-2-3. The cut-off value for the total score of the odd-numbered questions assessing anxiety is 10; while it is 7 for the even-numbered questions assessing depression. Results: 21 patients were included in the study. 13 of these patients (61.9%) were diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and 8 (38.1%) were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Median age of the patients was 45 (range: 21-69). 11 patients (52.4%) were female and 10 (47.6%) were male. 5 patients (23.8%) had comorbidities while 16 (76.2%) had none. Anxiety evaluation revealed that 38.1% of all patients in the study experienced anxiety. The rate of anxiety was 38.5% in AML patients and similarly 37.5% in ALL patients. 45.5% of …