Brief psychological distress screening on a cancer helpline: How nurses introduce, and callers respond to, the Distress Thermometer.

2021 ◽  
pp. 101986
Author(s):  
Amanda LeCouteur ◽  
Claire Lehmann ◽  
Vikki Knott
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Distress Thermometer ◽  
Distress Screening

scholarly journals Utility of a modified distress thermometer in screening COVID-19 patients for psychological distress: A prospective Egyptian study

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherif A.A. Mohamed ◽  
Azza AbdelHafeez ◽  
Ehab Kamel ◽  
Alaa Rashad
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Distress Thermometer ◽  
Shortness Of Breath ◽  
University Hospitals ◽  
Distress Screening ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Care Worker ◽  
Cancer Network

Background: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has adopted the distress thermometer (DT) as one of the best-known distress-screening instruments. We have adopted a modified version of the NCCN distress thermometer.We questioned if this modified DT (m-DT) could be utilized for measuring the prevalence of psychological distress among COVID-19 patients.Methods: The prospective study included 2 phases; modification of the original DT and its associated problem list (PL), and evaluation of this m-DT in measuring the prevalence of psychological distress among COVID-19 patients. Egyptian adult subjects with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2 University Hospitals were enrolled. Binary logistic regression tests were carried out to explore the association between the m-DT cut-off scores of 4 and the clinical variables.Results: One hundred sixty-nine (60.4%) patients experienced significant distress (m-DT cut off score ≥4). Logistic regression showed that occupation, presence of special habits, length of quarantine time, worry, cough, shortness of breath, and fever, were independent factors associated with significant distress in COVID-19 patients.Conclusion: With the modified distress thermometer (m-DT), 60% of Egyptian COVID-19 patients experienced significant distress. This distress was significantly related to age, marital status, occupation, presence or absence of special habits, and length of the quarantine time. With m-DT, the current study had identified worry, being a health-care worker, shortness of breath, fever, length of quarantine time, presence of special habits, and cough as independent factors associated with significant distress in COVID-19 patients. Further studies are warranted.

scholarly journals P106 Depressive symptoms and anxiety and their screening in IBD patients: performance of the distress thermometer in Italian IBD patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S188-S189
Author(s):  
C Canaletti ◽  
F Colombo ◽  
A Dessì ◽  
E Geccherle ◽  
A Tongiorgi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Screening Tool ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Cutoff Score ◽  
Distress Screening ◽  
Single Item ◽  
Mayo Score ◽  
Clinical Indices

Abstract Background Roughly 50% of patients with IBD have symptoms of psychological distress (Mikocka-Walus et al. 2019) but only 15.2% receive attention for their mental health although the effect on disease severity can be profound. It is necessary to have an easy-to-administer psychological distress screening tool. The distress thermometer (DT) is a single-item distress screening scale with 11-likert response widely used in oncological patients. The aim of study was to determine whether the single-item DT compared favourably with IBD clinical indices and time consuming measures currently used to screen for distress. Methods Two hundered and twenty IBD patients (51.43% male) who were recruited in eight Italian hospitals completed the DT and identified the presence or absence of 34 problems using standardised problem list (PL). They completed the 14-item Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the 32-item Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ). Disease clinical indices have been collected for each patient (Mayo score, Harvey–Bradshaw Index–HBI, years of illness, and exacerbation in the last year). Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses validated the use of the DT in Italian IBD population. Results 47.6% reported anxiety and depression symptoms (HADS ≥15) and needs emotional care. Anxiety is much more associated (43.8%) than depressive problems (26.2%). Data are confirmed by responses to DT and PL: 44.5% of patients reported moderate–severe emotional distress (TD ≥ 5), 43.1% of patients report nervousness and worry, 27.1% reported depression. We observed a strong positive correlation between IBDQ and HADS (r = 0.74, p < 0.001) and DT (r = 0.58, p < 0.001), while there was a slightly smaller association with Mayo score (r = 0.46, p < 0.001) and HBI (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). There was not a statistical significant correlation between disease indices and the emotional distress as measured by HADS or DT. ROC analyses showed that a DT cutoff score of 5 or higher had optimal sensitivity (83%) and specificity (68%) relative to the HADS score as ‘gold’ standard. DT scores yielded area under the curve estimates relative to the HADS cutoff score indicative of good overall accuracy (AUC = 0.81–95% CI: 0.77–0.85). Conclusion Our study confirms that anxiety and depression symptoms are associated with IBD. This is the first study that demonstrated that DT is an easy-to-administer screening tool of psychosocial distress in IBD population. We propose that gastroenterologists use DT to identify patients with psychological distress: an early psychological support and a multidisclinar equipe can determinate a patient’s better disease course (Mawdsley et al. 2005). Our analyses indicated that using a DT’s cutoff of 5 to indicate high levels of distress.

Distress screening in patients with urogenital malignancies.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. 412-412
Author(s):  
Pia Paffenholz ◽  
Maria Angerer-Shpilenya ◽  
Johannes Salem ◽  
David Pfister ◽  
Axel Heidenreich
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Stress Level ◽  
Malignant Tumors ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Salvage Treatment ◽  
Distress Screening ◽  
Prospective Longitudinal Study ◽  
Psychological Burden ◽  
High Stress Level ◽  
Prospective Longitudinal

412 Background: Malignant tumors do not only have a somatic but also a psychological impact on patients. To date, only a few studies are available which evaluated the potential psychological burden of patients suffering from urogenital cancers. In this prospective, longitudinal study we examine the baseline psychological distress of patients treated for urogenital malignancies focussing on testicular cancer (TC) and prostate cancer (PCA). Methods: Psychological distress of 192 inpatients treated for urogenital malignancies was evaluated using the distress thermometer (DT), an established tool for the detection of distress, prior to any surgical or systemic therapy. The DT consists of a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 to 10 resulting in a low (0-3), moderate (4-6) or high (7-10) stress level. Furthermore, it contains a 36-item list of problems subdivided into 5 categories (practical, family, emotional, spiritual/religious, physical). Results: The mean DT score was 5 (interquartile range (IQR) 3-7) with the most common stressors being of emotional origin, namely fear (50%), worry (44%), nervousness (42%), sleep disorders (39%) and fatigue (32%). DT analysis did not reveal any difference between the tumor entities but 64% of all patients displayed a moderate to high stress level requiring psycho-oncological support. The comparison of PCA and TC demonstrated a higher distress level in PCA patients in the subgroups of metastatic disease (median 5.5, IQR 4-8 vs. median 4, IQR 2-6; p = 0.018), secondary therapy (median 6, IQR 5-8 vs. median 4.5, IQR 2.75-6; p = 0.023) and salvage treatment (median 7, IQR 4.5-9 vs. 5, IQR 2.75-6; p = 0.021). PCA patients receiving salvage treatment displayed significantly higher distress levels compared to non-salvage treated patients (median 7, IQR 4.5-9 vs. median 5, IQR 2-7; p 0.028). Conclusions: Our study shows that 64% of urological tumor patients should be offered psycho-oncological support. Especially patients suffering from advanced stage PCA seem to have a high stress level. Thus, physicians in the field of urologic oncology should be aware of their patients’ psychological distress in order to identify high-risk patients and provide them with an appropriate psycho-oncological support.

scholarly journals Psychological Distress and Its Predictors Among Hospital Admitted COVID-19 Patients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renjith R. Pillai ◽  
Abhishek Ghosh ◽  
Sumit Shrivasthava ◽  
Sanuj Muralidharan ◽  
Krishan Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Distress Screening ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Self Blame ◽  
Posttraumatic Symptoms ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Time Of Admission

Abstract Objective Limited evidence is available on the psychological distress among patients hospitalized with COVID -19. We assessed (a) the incidence of psychological distress, posttraumatic symptoms and substance use among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, (b) perceived stress, coping, and social support experienced by distressed and non-distressed patients and the predictors of psychological distress. Method Ours was a hospital-based cross-sectional study, conducted in a Union Territory of India. Patients were assessed (August – September, 2020) at the time of admission (within two days) with standardized instruments (N=250). Results More than 19 percent of respondents had experienced significant psychological distress (probable cases) and nearly 9% reported post traumatic stress symptoms. The cases and non-cases differ in terms of active coping (5.51±0.87 v/s 5.06±1.06; t=3.10, p<0.01), emotional support (5.21±0.87 v/s 4.86±0.79; t=2.57, p<0.01), behavioural disengagement (5.18±0.92 v/s 4.55±1.15; t=3.56, p<0.001), venting (5.42±0.96 v/s 4.80±1.24; t=3.30, p<0.01), acceptance (5.75±1.24 v/s 5.29±1.50; t=2.23, p<0.05), religion (5.43±1.41 v/s 6.06±1.46; t=-2.76, p<0.01) and self-blame (5.65±1.00 v/s 4.82±1.39; t=3.95, p<0.001). Symptoms of post-traumatic stress (OR: 2.058; 95% CI: 1.49-2.84) was the only significant predictor of the psychological distress. Conclusions Nearly one in five hospitalized patients with COVID-19 experience psychological distress. Screening and treatment for trauma and psychological distress should be made an integral component of care for patients with COVID-19

Comparing the distress thermometer (DT) with the patient health questionnaire (PHQ)-2 for screening for possible cases of depression among patients newly diagnosed with advanced cancer

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lazenby ◽  
Jane Dixon ◽  
Mei Bai ◽  
Ruth McCorkle
Keyword(s):  
Advanced Cancer ◽  
Emotional Problem ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Distress Thermometer ◽  
Test Reliability ◽  
Rapid Screening ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Distress Screening ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Screening Guidelines

AbstractObjective:Distress screening guidelines call for rapid screening for emotional distress at the time of cancer diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to examine the distress thermometer's (DT) ability to screen in patients in treatment for advanced cancer who may be depressed.Methods:Using cross-sectional data collected from patients within 30 days of diagnosis with advanced cancer, this study used ROC analysis to determine the optimal-cutoff point of the distress thermometer (DT) for screening for depression as measured by the physician health questionnaire (PHQ)-9; inter-test reliability analysis to compare the DT with the PHQ-2 for screening in possible cases of depression, and multivariate analysis to examine associations among the DT emotional problem list (EPL) items with cases of depression.Results:The average age of the 123 patients in the study was 59.9 (12.9) years. Seventy (56.9%) were female. All had Stage 3 or 4 cancers (40% gastrointestinal, 19% gynecologic, 20% head and neck, 21% lung). The mean DT score was 4 (2.7)/10; and 56 (43%) were depressed as measured by the PHQ-9 ≥5. The optimal DT cut-off score to screen in possible cases of depression was ≥2/10, with a sensitivity of .96, compared to a sensitivity of .32 of the PHQ-2 ≥2. Correlation coefficients for the DT ≥2 and the PHQ-2 with the PHQ-9 ≥5 were 0.4 and −0.2, respectively. EPL items associated with cases of depression were Depression (OR = 0.15, 0.02–0.85) and Sadness (OR = 0.21, 0.06–0.72).Significance of Results:The optimal DT threshold for identifying possible cases of depression at the time of diagnosis is ≥2; this threshold is more sensitive than the PHQ-2 ≥2. EPL items may be used with the DT score to triage patients for evaluation.

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