Distress Thermometer Score Is Useful For Predicting Suicidal Ideation in Patients With Cancer

Purpose: Suicidal ideation (SI) and depressive symptoms are common in patients with cancer. A Distress Thermometer (DT) is an effective tool to screen depression and anxiety in such cohorts. We investigated the value of the DT for predicting SI and the prevalence and associated risk factors of SI in the study population.

Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled a total of 162 heterogeneous patients with cancer. Information regarding sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, DT score, and the past month SI were collected. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to find accuracy and the optimal cutoff score for predicting risk of SI. The significance of difference between DT scores was obtained using the median independence test. Likelihood of risk was analyzed through odds ratio.

Results: DT possesses good overall accuracy (area under the ROC curve = 0.797) for predicting SI in patients with cancer. The DT had a sensitivity of 0.929 and a specificity of 0.522 with a cutoff score of ≥4. The patients with SI had significantly higher DT scores than the patients without SI (7 [5,8] 3 [1,6]; < .001). The 1-month prevalence of SI was 17.3%. Depression, anxiety, and psychological distress were the predictive factors of SI.

Conclusion: SI is a global issue in patients with cancer. The DT scores may be a rapid predicting tool for identifying SI in patients with cancer. Higher DT scores and patients with psychosocial problems need to be routinely screened for SI, which may help to prevent suicidal risk.