Malignant Diseases and Mental Disorders - Prevalence, Mortality, Therapeutic Challenge

Mental disorders comorbid with carcinoma, which according to the literature occur in 50% of cases of cancer, drastically decrease the quality of life of patients, increase mortality rate, and affect the outcome of the disease. Early detection of mental disorders, screening, the use of adequate diagnostic scales, and therapy are a prerequisite to improving of the quality of life of such patients and achieving a better prognosis. The aim of this review paper is to find an answer to the following questions: which mental disorders can occur? What is the quality of life of these patients? Are there specific assessment scales? Do psychiatric patients receive adequate treatment? Are there any therapeutic specificities and interactions with the oncological therapy? Can an oncological patient's therapy cause the occurrence of a mental disorder? We went through the literature with the help of the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database Σ the Medline/Pubmed system Σ and we took into consideration publications from the past ten years. There are many psychological reactions and mental disorders that occur as a result of diagnoses that requires a lifetime of treatment, aggressive medical treatments, lifestyle changes, and of the influence of the tumour itself. Most studies indicate a protective role of schizophrenia and psychopharmacology but also that certain side-effects of drugs are directly linked with a cancerogenic effect. There are specific scales to assess the mental state of patients suffering from malignancies. According to current guiding principles, patients suffering from carcinoma in comorbidity with mental disorders or diseases do not receive adequate treatment. Our current knowledge, however, indicates the importance of team-work and an interdisciplinary approach as the only solution to effectively and adequately help patients.