Silva Sónia, Paredes Tiago, Teixeira Ricardo João, Brandão Tânia, Dimitrovová Klára, Marques Diogo, Sousa Joana, Leal Monick, Dias Albina, Neves Carole, Marques Graciete, Amaral Natália
Portuguese Cancer League (Central Branch), Rua Dr. António José de Almeida, nº 329-2º Sl 56, 3000-045 Coimbra, Portugal.
REACH-Mental Health Clinic, 4000-138 Porto, Portugal.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Oct 6;11(19):2689. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11192689.
Cancer patients may experience significant distress. The "Emotion Thermometers" (ETs) are a short visual analogue scale used to screen patients for psychosocial risk. This study aimed to assess emotional distress in a large sample of cancer patients attending psychological services at an non-governmental organization (NGO), and to explore factors that may contribute to it. The ETs were answered by 899 cancer patients. They were, on average, 59.9 years old, the majority were female, had breast cancer, were under treatment or were disease-free survivors, and reported high levels of emotional distress, above the cut-off (≥5). A Generalized Linear Model was used to measure the association between the level of distress, age, gender, disease phase and 33 items of the problem list. Four items-sadness, depression, sleep and breathing-were found to be significantly related to a higher level of distress. Additionally, women and patients who were in the palliative phase also had significantly higher levels of distress. The results confirm the need for early emotional screening in cancer patients, as well as attending to the characteristics of each patient. Additionally, they highlight the utility of the ETs for the clinical practice, allowing to optimize the referral to specialized psychosocial services.
癌症患者可能会经历严重的痛苦。“情绪温度计”（ETs）是一种简短的视觉模拟量表，用于筛查患者的心理社会风险。本研究旨在评估在一家非政府组织（NGO）接受心理服务的大量癌症患者的情绪痛苦，并探讨可能导致这种痛苦的因素。899名癌症患者回答了ETs。他们的平均年龄为59.9岁，大多数为女性，患有乳腺癌，正在接受治疗或为无病生存者，并且报告的情绪痛苦水平较高，高于临界值（≥5）。使用广义线性模型来衡量痛苦水平、年龄、性别、疾病阶段与问题清单中的33项之间的关联。发现悲伤、抑郁、睡眠和呼吸这四项与较高的痛苦水平显著相关。此外，女性和处于姑息治疗阶段的患者的痛苦水平也显著更高。结果证实了对癌症患者进行早期情绪筛查的必要性，以及关注每位患者的特征。此外，它们突出了ETs在临床实践中的效用，有助于优化转介至专业心理社会服务。
