Prevalence of Depression in Patients with Breast Cancer Undergoing Mastectomy in Ramsar and Tonekabon Oncology Centers in 2016

Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer among Iranian women as well as the most important cause of their death. Mastectomy can be associated with mood disorders such as depression. Given the significance of the issue, we addressed the prevalence of depression in patients with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy.
This cross-sectional study enrolled 100 patients with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy presenting to the oncology ward of Imam Sajjad Hospital in Ramsar and Tonekabon's Oncology Clinic in 2016. Convenience sampling technique was used. The data were collected using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Moreover, the data were analyzed in SPSS software version 24 using Chi-square, Fisher test and independent t-test. Furthermore, the significance level was set at less than 0.05.
The stage of breast cancer was reported as I in 10 (%10), II in 41 (%41), III in 32 (%32), and IV in 17 (%17) cases. The mean score of depression was 12.24 ± 10.127 in the patients. Depression scores were 0-13 in 56 patients (%56), 14-19 in 20 patients (%20), 20-28 in 18 patients (%18), and 29-63 in 6 patients (%6). Depression scores had no significant relationship with the type of mastectomy (P=0.664), staging (P=0.623), age (P=0.109), marital status (P=0.416), occupation (P=0.192) and financial support (P=0.121).
Our results revealed that about %45 of patients with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy experienced some degree of depression.