Poster from APOS meeting, Annaheim, California, February 2011

1. P1-55 How Many People with Cancer Related Distress or Depression
have Suicidal Thoughts? A clinically representative ethnically diverse sample
Alex J Mitchell Consultant in Psycho-oncology Karen Lord PhD Candidate & CNS Paul Symonds Reader in Oncology
Department of Cancer & Molecular Medicine, University Hospitals Leicester (UK) & University of Leicester ajm80@le.ac.uk
OBJECTIVES
Recently there has been more attention on people with suicidal thoughts who suffer distress or depression in the
context of cancer. We aimed to study the frequency of suicidal thoughts in an ethnically diverse UK sample
METHODS
We analysed data collected from Leicester Cancer Centre from 2008-2009 involving approximately 1000 people
approached by a research nurse and two therapeutic radiographers. Of those approached we collected data on 738
presentations, that is people seen up to three times over 9 months during treatment for cancer. We had complete data
regarding suicidality on 554 (411 BW 143 BSA). We examined the following factors: treatment intent (radical vs
palliative), gender, ethnicity, cancer type, cancer duration.
We measured suicidal thoughts using the PHQ9, using the question “thoughts that you would be better of dead of hurting
yourself in some way” and scored as follows: not at all = 0; several days =1; more than half the days = 2; nearly every
day = 3. We report here, the proportion of people with any suicidal thoughts (non zero scores).
RESULTS
Of all patients 510 had no suicidal thoughts, 44 (8%) had some thoughts
and 12 (2%) had thoughts on “more than half days”
ALL
143 people had major or minor depression. 32 had suicidal thoughts (22.4%)
Of 69 people with major depression, 25 had suicidal thoughts (36.2%)
95 people had minor depression 7 had suicidal thoughts (7.4%)
205 people had distress on the DT. 37 had suicidal thoughts (18.0%)
British White
113 people had major or minor depression. 24 had suicidal thoughts (21.2%)
Of 40 people with major depression, 18 had suicidal thoughts (45%)
73 people had minor depression 6 had suicidal thoughts (8.2%)
127 people had distress on the DT. 24 had suicidal thoughts (18.9%)
British South Asian
52 people had major or minor depression. 8 had suicidal thoughts (15.4%) Chi² = 3.505185 P = 0.061
Of 30 people with major depression, 7 had suicidal thoughts (23.3%)
23 people had minor depression 1 had suicidal thoughts (4.3%)
78 people had distress on the DT, 13 had suicidal thoughts (16.6%)
CONCLUSIONS In our clinically representative diverse sample, suicidal thoughts were uncommon present in only 8%
and regular thoughts present in only 2%. However British white patients with major depression were a high risk group
with suicidal ideation seen in up to 45%. Suicidal thoughts were less common in BSA but this was not statistically
significant.
ACKNOLWEDGEMENT Funding from Hope against Cancer WEBSITE: www.psycho-oncology.info