Exploration of depressive symptoms in African American cancer patients

Abstract

Background: Accurately assessing depression in African American cancer patients is difficult because of the similarities of physical symptoms observed in cancer and depression.

Aim: To identify universal and distinctive depressive symptoms in African American cancer patients.

Methods: Seventy-four cancer patients (34 depressed and 23 non-depressed African Americans, and 17 depressed Whites) were interviewed. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted.

Results: Compared to non-depressed African Americans, depressed African Americans reported irritability, social isolation, insomnia, fatigue and crying (p ≤ 0.05) more frequently over time. Compared to depressed Whites, they reported sadness, frustration and intrusive thoughts less frequently (p ≤ 0.05), but insomnia and fatigue more frequently (p ≤ 0.05) during cancer treatment. There was little racial difference at the time of interview.

Conclusion: Depressed African American cancer patients may benefit from more culturally sensitive depression measures that consider symptoms of irritability, social isolation and altered expressions of depressive mood.

• Cancer
• depression
• diagnosis
• health disparity
• race

Acknowledgements

The University Hospitals of Cleveland, the MetroHealth System and the Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center affiliated with the Case Western Reserve University provided support for patient access.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (R03 CA115191-01A2; PI: Zhang).