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Sleep, fatigue, depression, and circadian activity rhythms in women with breast cancer before and after treatment: a 1-year longitudinal study

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Abstract

Purpose

Sleep disturbance, fatigue and depression are common complaints in patients with cancer, and often contribute to worse quality of life (QoL). Circadian activity rhythms (CARs) are often disrupted in cancer patients. These symptoms worsen during treatment, but less is known about their long-term trajectory.

Methods

Sixty-eight women with stage I-III breast cancer (BC) scheduled to receive ≥4 cycles of chemotherapy, and age-, ethnicity-, and education-matched normal, cancer-free controls (NC) participated. Sleep was measured with actigraphy (nocturnal total sleep time [nocturnal TST] and daytime total nap time [NAPTIME]) and with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); fatigue with the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF); depression with the Center of Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D). CARs were derived from actigraphy. Several measures of QoL were administered. Data were collected at three time points: before (baseline), end of cycle 4 (cycle 4), and 1 year post-chemotherapy (1 year).

Results

Compared to NC, BC had longer NAPTIME, worse sleep quality, more fatigue, more depressive symptoms, more disrupted CARs, and worse QoL at baseline (all p values <0.05). At cycle 4, BC showed worse sleep, increased fatigue, more depressive symptoms, and more disrupted CARs compared to their own baseline levels and to NC (all p values <0.05). By 1 year, BC’s fatigue, depressive symptoms, and QoL returned to baseline levels but were still worse than those of NC, while NAPTIME and CARs did not differ from NC’s.

Conclusion

Additional research is needed to determine if beginning treatment of these symptoms before the start of chemotherapy will minimize symptom severity over time.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute (CA112035 and P30 CA023100), the UCSD Clinical and Translational Research Institute (UL1RR031980), and the Department of Veterans Affairs San Diego Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH). The authors would like to thank all women who participated in this study either as patients or controls. The study was funded by NIH

Conflict of interest

The corresponding author has full control of all primary data and agrees to allow the Journal to review the data if requested.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Lianqi Liu, Michelle Rissling, Ariel B. Neikrug, Barton W. Palmer, Paul J. Mills & Jeanne Maglione

  2. Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Sonia Ancoli-Israel & Barbara A. Parker

  3. Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Loki Natarajan

  4. Department of Surgery, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Georgia Robins Sadler

  5. SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA, USA

    Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Michelle Rissling, Loki Natarajan, Ariel B. Neikrug, Barton W. Palmer & Paul J. Mills

  6. UCSD Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Loki Natarajan, Barbara A. Parker & Georgia Robins Sadler

  7. Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA

    Lianqi Liu

  8. VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, San Diego, CA, USA

    Sonia Ancoli-Israel & Lianqi Liu

Authors
  1. Sonia Ancoli-Israel
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  2. Lianqi Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonia Ancoli-Israel.

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Ancoli-Israel, S., Liu, L., Rissling, M. et al. Sleep, fatigue, depression, and circadian activity rhythms in women with breast cancer before and after treatment: a 1-year longitudinal study. Support Care Cancer 22, 2535–2545 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-014-2204-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-014-2204-5

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