The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between prostate cancer (PCa) patients' regret that their surgery harmed them, and their scores on the two key symptoms of major depressive disorder (depressed mood, anhedonia) and a symptom of melancholic depression (disruption to circadian rhythm).
Forty PCa patients who had received surgery for their PCa completed a postal survey including background information, regret about surgery that 'did them a lot of harm' and three items drawn from the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale measuring depressed mood, anhedonia and circadian rhythm disruption.
There were significant correlations between all three symptoms of depression (depressed mood, anhedonia, disruption to circadian rhythm) and between patients' regret that surgery did them a lot of harm and their circadian rhythm disruption, but not between depressed mood or anhedonia and regret about surgery doing harm.
These findings suggest that PCa patients' post-surgery regrets about major harm may lead to a significant disruption in a central physiological function and raise the need to consider this side effect of surgery when planning supportive services for these men.
Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer. 2017 Oct 04 [Epub ahead of print]
Joanne Christie, Christopher F Sharpley, Vicki Bitsika, David Christie
Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia., Brain-Behaviour Research Group, University of New England, Armidale, Australia. ., Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia., Brain-Behaviour Research Group, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.