Demoralization heavy among cancer patients

Cancer patients often suffer from high levels of demoralization, reports a new China study. The burden of depression, on the other hand, is lower.

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 424 cancer patients (mean age, 50 years; 64.9 percent female), who were asked to accomplish the Mandarin version of the Demoralization Scale (DS-MV). Other tools included were the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Revised Life Orientation Test, Beck Hopelessness Scale and the 12-item Short Form Health Survey version 2.

The mean DS-MV score was 30.4±13.0, and 47 percent (n=139) of patients were found to have a high level of demoralization. In comparison, the mean PHQ-9 score was 6.5±5.3, with 20 percent showing high depression burden. Twenty-eight percent (n=83) satisfied the criteria for demoralization but not depression.

Demoralization was significantly and positively correlated with depression, hopelessness, and the avoidance and resignation coping methods, while it showed a negative association with having a positive life orientation (p-all<0.001). Depression showed a similar profile of correlation with psychological factors.

Both depression and demoralization were significantly predictive of negative outcomes in all aspects of quality of life (p-all<0.001).

Regression analysis found that over half of the variance in the DS-MV scores could be explained by resignation, hopelessness, lack of education and having a negative orientation in life (p<0001). Forty-three percent of the variance in depression scores, in comparison, was accounted for by hopelessness and resignation.