Abstract
Purpose
Suicidal ideation (SI) is an important complication in cancer patients that should be promptly recognized and adequately managed. We investigated the prevalence rate and correlates of pre-operative SI in brain tumor (BT) patients admitted for elective BT surgery.
Methods
Two hundred and eleven consecutive patients (70 % women; mean age 55.9 ± 15.4 years) scheduled for BT surgery were evaluated for SI (“suicidal thought” item from the Beck Depression Inventory-II), depressive/anxiety symptom severity (Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS)), health-related quality of life (SF-36 scale), functional status (Barthel Index), and psychiatric histories and treatments. The majority of patients were diagnosed with meningioma (39 %) and high-grade glioma (17 %).
Results
SI was self-reported by 12 (6 %) patients. Patients expressing SI were most commonly diagnosed with meningioma (50 %). Patients with SI were more likely to have a past history of psychiatric disorders, scored higher on the HADS anxiety subscale, and reported worse health-related quality of life across physical and mental health domains. In multivariate regression analyses, worse perceived mental health was associated with increased risk for SI independently from clinical, sociodemographic, and other patient-oriented variables considered in the study.
Conclusions
SI was self-reported by 6 % of BT patients before surgical intervention and was associated with a past history of psychiatric disorders and worse perceived health status. Poor mental health was an independent correlate of SI. The perception of health status by a patient should be considered as an important determinant of poor mental health in BT patients.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Juste Buneviciute for her assistance with the manuscript.
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The study protocol and consent procedure were approved by the Ethics Committee for Biomedical Research of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Written informed consent was obtained from each study patient.
Funding
This study was funded by Research Council of Lithuania (project No. MIP-044/2015).
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Authors state that they have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review it if requested.
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Pranckeviciene, A., Tamasauskas, S., Deltuva, V.P. et al. Suicidal ideation in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery: prevalence and risk factors. Support Care Cancer 24, 2963–2970 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3117-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3117-2