Psycho-oncology
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Multicenter Study
Do rates of mental disorders and existential distress among advanced stage cancer patients increase as death approaches?
To determine whether the prevalence of mental disorders and related factors increase as advanced cancer patients get closer to death. ⋯ Results do not provide support for the common clinical assumption that the prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders increases as death nears. However, patients' level of physical distress, acknowledgment of terminal illness, and wish to die, possibly reflecting acceptance of dying, increased as death approached. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm individual changes in rates of mental disorder as patients approach death.