Effective treatment for depression in patients with cancer

摘要

The studies by Michael Sharpe and colleagues1 in The Lancet and by Jane Walker and colleagues2 in The Lancet Oncology show a rigorous approach to the implementation and assessment of a complex intervention to alleviate depression in people with cancer. This research is timely, since the risk of depression has been shown to be two-to-three-times higher in patients with cancer than in the general population, and could contribute to the poorer quality of life4 and increased risk of suicide in such individuals. Neurobiological factors might play a part in the link between cancer and depression,6 but much evidence suggests that depression in this population represents a final common pathway of distress that results from the interaction of several diverse risk and vulnerability factors.