Depression Secondary to Tumors in Patients who Underwent Surgery for mammary Carcinoma: Psycho-Pharmaceutical and Psychotherapeutic care.

Abstract The Authors repeated a pilot psycho-social research they had already undertaken in this University in 1986-1987, with an increased number of patients, administering a psycho-therapeutic treatment to patients who had undergone surgery for mammary carcinoma and correlating the evolution of the tumoral disease with the role of depression and the immune system. These 50 patients were compared to another randomly chosen control-group of 50 patients. Both groups were homogeneous as regards medical-surgical and psycho-social parameters and had routine oncological care. Only the patients of the study-group were submitted to individual psychotherapy and treated psychopharmacologically. At the end of the study, the two groups showed a statistically significant difference as regards the evolution of the tumoral disease in favour of the study-group. In addition, a relevant improvement from depression was recorded in the study-group along with a normalization and a boost of the immunological measurements