Concurrent psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety in cancer patients.

Over the past 30 years, numerous studies have compared the relative effectiveness of psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, and concurrent therapeutic approaches in treatment of common psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Generally, these studies have demonstrated that the combined approach is somewhat more effective in treating the disorder in question, as well as in preventing relapse. A number of theories regarding the reasons for this finding have been proposed. The application of this therapeutic approach to the specific population of cancer patients has not been studied in systematic research. This paper briefly reviews the studies comparing the efficacies of various treatment approaches for depression, discusses reasons for the efficacy of such an approach, and outlines a series of reasons why this may be the preferred model for intervening with cancer patients.