Integration of the health team to address the patients’ emotional aspects: Caring for the whole patient (#406)
Cancer care still fails to address psychosocial problems, which can compromise the effectiveness of health care and thereby adversely affect cancer patients. The present retrospective study explore a routine of distress screening, which is followed by a multidisciplinary discussion, with the aim of establishing personalized strategies for intervention and treatment. Over two years, 328 patients from a Brazilian private cancer center, participated in a longitudinal study, answering the Distress Thermometer and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, three times over a 6-month period using. The data of each evaluation were discussed between oncologist assistant and psychologist, to establish appropriate intervention. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and a logistic regression were employed to analyze the data. There was a prevalence of female patients (64%), with an average of 54.7 years of age (SD = 15.8, range 18-86 years). Gastrointestinal (28%), breast (23.8%) and hematological (22.6%) were the main diagnosis. The distress level progressively decreased along the assessment: first day (55.8%), middle (27%) and last day of chemotherapy (13.4%), as well as the anxiety and depression score. There was a significant association (p < .001) between distress vs. anxiety and distress vs. depression: first day [r = 0.8, t(328) = 21.6; r = 0.8, t(328) = 16.2; R2 = 0.85], middle [r = 0.8, t(285) = 18.4; r = 0.8, t(285) = 20.9; R2 = 0.86] and last day of chemotherapy [r = 0.8, t(261) = 14.7; r = 0.8, t(261) = 20.8; R2 = 0.82]. Moreover, additional comparisons of the items were analyzed and will be presented at the meeting. Preliminary results suggest that distress, anxiety and depression scores tends to reduce during the 6-months period of evaluation, mainly because was supported by the multidisciplinary intervention and treatment tailored to each case.