Psychiatric Symptomatology Among Hospitalized Cancer Patients

A 90-item symptom checklist (SCL-90) was administered to 30 patients admitted consecutively to an oncology research unit. More than half of the patients showed moderate to high levels of depression, and 30 percent had elevated levels of anxiety. Nearly one-fourth had overall symptom patterns virtually identical to those seen in patients admitted to an emergency psychiatric service. The authors state that the use of this kind ofself administered symptom inventory can be a valuable adjunct to the identification and management of psychiatric pathology in cancer patients.