Depression Health Article

Description

Everybody feels sad sometimes, but to be clinically depressed is not just a matter of feeling sad. A patient with cancer is diagnosed as having major depression only if certain symptoms, such as loss of pleasure or thoughts of death, are present for at least two weeks. Only a healthcare professional can accurately determine whether a patient is depressed or is simply upset because of the disease.

A note on depression and children with cancer

Few children with cancer experience depression. For many children survivors of cancer, the experience of having had cancer makes them deeper, more understanding human beings later in adulthood and old age. However, some children with cancer do experience depression, sleep problems, and relationship problems. Depression appearing in a child who has cancer should be treated by a healthcare professional.

The symptoms of depression in children are somewhat different from those in adults. The physician should be notified of a sad mood (or, in children less than six years of age, a facial expression that appears to express sadness) that continues for at least two weeks and is accompanied by at least four of the following: (a) appetite changes, (b) sleep problems or excessive sleep, (c) excessive activity or inactivity, (d) loss of pleasure, (e) not caring about anything, (f) fatigue, (g) being overly critical of himself or herself, (h) feeling worthless or guilty for no apparent reason, (i) inability to concentrate, and (j) thoughts of death.

Are most people who have cancer depressed?

Most people who have cancer are not depressed. Depression is found in cancer patients about as frequently as in patients hospitalized for major, noncancer illnesses such as heart disease. However, depression is more often present in people who have cancer than in the general population. Approximately one out of eight people with cancer are depressed. Among hospitalized people with cancer, roughly one in four is depressed.