Cancer sent me into a state of depression. And it took more than a year of counseling and treatment with an anti-depressant to bring me back to a balanced and healthy level of functioning.My type of depression -- the kind that shows up just after a cancer diagnosis -- is not uncommon. And neither is the spillover that depression can leave on the children of moms depressed because of their disease.
A study at the University of Pittsburgh -- the first to examine the relationship between children's concerns and a mother's cancer-related depression -- found children of depressed breast cancer patients were more likely to be concerned or anxious about their mother's cancer and about how the disease affects their families.
It's not surprising that kids worry about their moms during times of illness. What startled researchers, though, is the fact that children's' anxieties extended to concerns about the entire family.
The results of this study, funded by the National Cancer Institute, has clear implications. As a society, we need to think about how depression affects whole family units. Oncologists must learn to spot depression early and must swiftly assist women in finding appropriate treatment. And parents should talk openly about cancer and it's emotional side effects with their children in an effort to protect them from withdrawing, hiding their concerns, and suffering in silence.
Most estimates indicate nearly one quarter of women diagnosed with breast cancer have young children. And about 100,000 kids will be affected by a cancer diagnosis this year alone.
1. Congratulations on being both a cancer and depression survivor. You have traveled a rough road.
There is link between cancer and depression.
Some people with cancer may have a higher risk for developing depression. The cause of depression is not known, but the risk factors for developing depression are known. Risk factors may be cancer-related and noncancer-related.
Cancer-Related Risk Factors:
1. Depression at the time of cancer diagnosis.
2 Poorly controlled pain.
3. An advanced stage of cancer.
4 Other life events that produce stress.
5 Increased physical impairment or pain.
6 Pancreatic cancer.
7 Being unmarried and having head and neck cancer.
8. Treatment with some anticancer drugs.
www.MyDepressionSpace.com
Posted at 4:09PM on Mar 27th 2007 by Charles Donovan