Evaluation of depression and anxiety levels in patients with a complaint of a breast mass: a prospective study

Introduction: Breast cancer is the mostcommon cancer among women in the world and in our country. Despite earlydiagnosis and improved treatment possibilities, breast cancer is difficult toaccept and a major source of anxiety. It brings various psychosocial problemsto the agenda. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of depression andanxiety in the patients admitted to the outpatient clinic with the complaint ofa mass in the breast and to determine the effect of mass on the mental healthof women.Methods: This study is an analyticalcase-control study. All of the participants were female (n=200). Patientsfilled the questionnaire containing the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), theBeck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the sociodemographic data form.Results: There was nostatistically significant difference between the case and control groups interms of the marital status, living with someone, monthly income level, placeof residence, occupation, and education level (p gt;0.05). There was a statistically significantdifference between case and control groups in terms of the mean BDI score(19.6±1.05, 8.92±0.62, respectively, p lt;0.001). There was also astatistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of themean BAI score (20.34±1.23, 7.88±0.71, respectively, p lt;0.001). Conclusion: In our study, the incidenceof depression and severe anxiety was significantly higher in the women admittedto the outpatient clinic with the complaint of a breast mass than in thehealthy women.