Feryel Letaief Ksontini

Anxiety Disorders in Oncology Feryel Letaief Ksontini

Introduction: The announcement of a cancer diagnosis and its treatment can cause emotional trauma to patients. These psychological reactions include anxiety. The objective of our study was to analyze the different manifestations of anxiety in cancer patients and to evaluate the role of the nurse in the management of this psychological distress. Methods: This is a prospective descriptive study that was carried out over a period of one month on cancer patients followed in the medical oncology department aged over 20 years. The HADS scale was used to assess anxiety and depression in patients. Results: Our study included 70 cancer patients, 46% of whom were women. The most common type of cancer was breast cancer. According to the HADS scale, 74% of the patients were symptomatic of anxiety disorders and 23% had depressive symptoms, which was found in other studies in the literature. The main factors related to anxiety were the stage of the disease, the presence of asthenia, pain, type of surgery and religion.