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Objective: To assess the acceptability to patients of a diagnostic interview for depression (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV; SCID) conducted over the telephone to their homes. Method: Postal questionnaire survey of patients who had attended an oncology outpatient clinic where they had scored high on a screening questionnaire and had subsequently undergone an SCID interview over the telephone. Results: Of the 224 patients telephoned, five refused the diagnostic interview. Of the 219 who were interviewed, 184 satisfactorily completed and returned the postal questionnaire (84% response rate). Only 17% reported the interview to be distressing. Ninety-four percent of all questionnaire respondents and 84% (n=31) of those who reported the interview to have been distressing endorsed the item “Had I known in advance what answering the questions would have been like for me, I would still have agreed to take part”. Perceiving the interview as distressing was associated with having major depression (P

Research in the psychological aspects of cancer and chemotherapy has reached an exciting stage of development. More acceptable standards of scientific rigour are being applied to thinking and research, spanning a wide range of important issues from prognostic indicators to the evaluation of treatment trials. It is important to remember that patients do not exist in isolation and that the impact of disease and treatment is also felt by their care givers. The burden which falls on spouses and other primary carers and the importance of their contribution to patients' adaptation to illness should not be underestimated. By the same token the emotional demands particularly on nursing and junior medical staff are increasingly recognized with developing interest in optimal means of providing staff support. Thus the field is still expanding. It requires the continuing collaborative effort of a wide range of professional disciplines to improve our understanding of the psychological aspect of oncology for all cancer patients and those who care for them.

To assess the acceptability to patients of a diagnostic interview for depression (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV; SCID) conducted over the telephone to their homes.Postal questionnaire survey of patients who had attended an oncology outpatient clinic where they had scored high on a screening questionnaire and had subsequently undergone an SCID interview over the telephone.Of the 224 patients telephoned, five refused the diagnostic interview. Of the 219 who were interviewed, 184 satisfactorily completed and returned the postal questionnaire (84% response rate). Only 17% reported the interview to be distressing. Ninety-four percent of all questionnaire respondents and 84% (n=31) of those who reported the interview to have been distressing endorsed the item "Had I known in advance what answering the questions would have been like for me, I would still have agreed to take part". Perceiving the interview as distressing was associated with having major depression (P.001). Forty-seven percent said that, given the choice, they would have preferred a face-to-face interview.Telephone-administered diagnostic interviews are acceptable to most cancer patients and may even be preferred to face-to-face interviews at the hospital. This finding, together with the existing evidence of its validity, should encourage the use of telephone diagnostic interviews for depression, particularly when face-to-face interviews are impracticable, in both research studies and clinical practice. Indeed, a substantial proportion of patients may actually prefer them.