History of Depression in Lung Cancer Patients: Impact of Delay

Abstract

Aims: To examine the influence of a history of depression in the process of diagnostic evaluation and the choice of treatment in lung cancer.

Materials and methods: The analysis was based on all patients with non-small cell lung cancer who were registered in 2008-2014; in total, 27 234 patients. To estimate the effect of depression on the diagnostic process and the choice of treatment in lung cancer we fitted a logistic regression model and a Cox regression model adjusting for age, gender, resection and stage.

Results: Depression in a patient's anamnesis had no significant effect on the delay in diagnostic evaluation (hazard ratio = 0.99 with 95% confidence interval 0.90; 1.09). Patients with a history of periodic depression had a 33% lower treatment rate (odds ratio = 0.66 with 95% confidence interval 0.51; 0.85) than patients without a history of depression.

Conclusions: Our study shows that patients with a history of periodic depression need special attention when diagnosed with lung cancer.

Keywords: Depression; diagnostic evaluation; lung cancer; socio-economic status; treatment.