Management of Depression Among Cancer Patients in Uganda Cancer Institute.

Abstract

Introduction. Depression is mood a disorder which presents with persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities Rottenberg J., (2005). It also presents feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep and appetite, feelings of tiredness that occurs together with poor concentration Lima D., (2004). Besides the improvements in cancer services at the UCI, research globally shows that depression in cancer patients is under diagnosed and undertreated.Walker J.,k Holm C.H., Martin P., et al., (2014). This paper seeks to find the patients, health workers, and institutional factors influencing the management of depression in cancer patients at Uganda cancer institute. Early recognition and appropriate management of depression among cancer patients improves adherence to treatment, improved social functioning and prolongs survival thus it is paramount to manage depression among cancer patients.Gonzalez J., Batchelder A., Psaros C. et al., (2011). Literature review. Data was collected from textbooks, previously related research electronic data base, Internet, and journals. Only papers that involved management of depression, psycho-oncology issues were included. Methodology. The method of collecting data employed was across sectional descriptive design. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 16.0 system. Results. Results revealed that most patients stop treatment for prayer healing, (62.5%) this led to absenteeism on wards hindering medical management and cancer therapeutic cost over shadowing other costs during management of cancer patients. The health workers had challenges in diagnosing depressed patients and their treatment due to lack of assessment tools and availability of treatment guidelines at the UCI. The study has shown that there is inadequate staffing at the UCI and highly dependent wards like cancer wards require adequate staffing to cater for all patients’ needs. This might require a system of recruiting nurses according to the needs of patients on ward. We recommend for the provision of clinical guidelines at the UCI to manage depression in cancer patients and the recruitment of health worker to reduce the work load on medical staff.