Cancer patients and their family members would be greatly shocked after the patients are diagnosed to have cancer, and thereafter, would experience an emotional and psychological crisis. In addition, cancer patients would experience heavier physical a...
Cancer patients and their family members would be greatly shocked after the patients are diagnosed to have cancer, and thereafter, would experience an emotional and psychological crisis. In addition, cancer patients would experience heavier physical and emotional burdens during treatment due to not only pain from the disease itself but also side-effects and inconveniences caused by surgery, chemical therapy and radiation treatment, Among their major emotional responses, depression is the most serious problem affecting their family members, and even leading to suicide in some serious cases. The purpose of this study was to survey cancer patients and their family members for their depression and suicidal ideation and thereby, provide for some basic data useful to planning of an effective clinical nursing.
For this study, the researcher randomly sampled the patients and their family members from 2 university hospitals in Seoul, and thereby, collected the data from October 25 through November 10, 2007. The sample consisted of 54 cancer patients hospitalized and their 54 family members.
In order to measure the depression levels, the researcher used Zung's "Self-rating Depression Scale" translated by Song Oh-hyun (1977), and in order to measure the suicidal ideation, the researcher modified and used the Suicide Ideation Scale" completed by Harlow, et aL, (1986) and translated by Kim Hyung-soo (2002) as well as "the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire" developed by Reynolds (1987) and translated by Shin Min-seop (1992).
The collected data were processed using the SPSS/ WIN 110 program for percentages, T-test, ANOVA, Pearson's Correlation Coefficients and Scheffe's post-validation test.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows;
1. It was found that 27.8% of the cancer patients had experienced depression, while 220% of their family members had experienced depression.
2. It was disclosed that 90.7% of the cancer patients and 68% of their family members had conceived suicide.
3. In case of cancer patients, depression was correlated with age, and the group suffering most from pain were more depressed than the group feeling no pain. In case of their family members, depression was correlated with marital status, academic background and monthly income. And Catholics and atheists were more depressed than Protestants.
4. In case of cancer patients, suicidal ideation was correlated with timing of the initial diagnosis and period of treatment. And the suicidal ideation was stronger in the group who had been hospitalized more frequently, the group who had their cancer spread or reoccurred and the group who had suffered most from pain. And the group who had their cancer reoccurred and re-treated had a stronger suicidal ideation than the group who were being treated initially or whose cancer was being traced. In case of family members, the group whose patients had the cancer spread or reoccurred had a stronger suicidal ideation, and the group whose patients had the cancer reoccurred and re-treated had a stronger suicidal ideation than the group whose patients were being treated initially.
5. Depression was found correlated significantly with suicidal ideation in both patients (r=.503, p=<.001) and their family members (r=.292, p=.040).
As discussed above, cancer patients and their family members experience depression during hospitalization and treatment after diagnosis, and in extreme cases, they conceive suicide. Thus, if the factors affecting cancer patients' and their family members' depression should be determined to be relieved, an effective nursing intervention would be feasible to prevent their suicides. In this vein, nurses are obliged to assess and predict the risky factors affecting cancer patients' and their family members' depression and suicidal ideation in advance if they suspect that they are depressed, and thereby, provide them with adequate nursing intervention. Lastly, it is hoped that a clinical suicide prevention program will be developed to prevent cancer patients and their family members from committing suicide.