Up to 85% of Vietnamese cancer patients suffer depression following their diagnosis of the usually fatal illness, which aggravates their cancer treatment, heard a recent workshop in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Dr. Duong Trung Kien, head of the Oncology Faculty of Hospital 103, a recent study on the depression rate among 264 newly-diagnosed patients at the hospital revealed that some 58% of them show signs of depression.

Those who are manual workers suffer lower rates of depression than those with white-collar jobs and the severity of depression heightens with the cancer phases, the study showed.

70.8% of the depressive patients in the study are constantly lethargic, over 70% of them have sleep disorders and 66% are plagued by abnormal anxiety. Under the assumption that cancer means inevitable death, a number of them have even made suicide attempts or had suicidal thoughts to free themselves from physical agony and imminent death.

According to doctors, the depressive mood and lack of  will in their turn worsen the patients’ conditions and considerably decrease their chance of survival.

Another study showed that some 85% of local cancer patients are depressive in varying degrees. Several patients even refuse cancer treatment and give up hope on combating the illness.

A study conducted among Oncology Hospital patients by Tran Thi Uyen Phuong from Ho Chi Minh City Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, depression among cancer patients is mostly induced by huge cancer treatment fees and financial burden, physical pain and complications, excessive worries about what will happen to their family, particularly their kids after they die, witnessing or learning about the death of fellow patients, living away from their family due to lengthy treatment time and hospital overcrowding and hygiene.

Most local hospitals treating cancer patients don’t offer psychological counseling. Phuong urged that hospitals employ staff who specialize in soothing and encouraging the patients and their family and providing them advice on how to go through the agonizing treatment and mental crisis.

Hospital managements can also work with universities which offer psychology training to arrange for students to serve their internship and help the patients at the hospitals.

Some types of cancers, particularly breast cancer, are on the rise in Vietnam. The country is forecast to have 25,000 new cases of breast cancer a year by 2020.

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Globocan), Vietnam had 111,500 new victims of various cancers in 2008, 82,000 of whom died.

At the April workshop, health officials reported that Vietnam has about 110,000 new cases of cancer every year and over 73 percent of them die, one of the highest rates in the world.