A clinically important mental health issue in palliative care concerns desire for death and its relationship to depression. Research focused on desire for death provides a link to understanding why patients might want to end their lives or request physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in the face of terminal illness. There have been several recent studies of patients with cancer or AIDS, demonstrating the central role of depression in desire for death and hypothetical interest in PAS. With one exception, these studies have not directly assessed desire for death among terminally ill patients, and no research has attempted to answer the question of whether treatment for depression has a significant impact on desire for death. This project aims to describe desire for death among patients with end-stage cancer, determine its correlates, and assess the impact of treatment for major depression on desire for death. Specifically, the research would assess the prevalence, severity, stability, and medical/psychosocial correlates of desire for death among terminally ill cancer patients hospitalized in a palliative care facility. It will examine the relationship between desire for death and a clinical diagnosis of Major Depressive Episode. Desire for death will then be monitored in a group of patients who receive a standardized pharmacological treatment for depression, as well as in patients who do not receive any intervention. This study is expected to provide a direct evaluation of desire for death in terminally ill cancer patients, and to ascertain whether a pharmacological treatment for depression influences desire for death.
| Kolva, Elissa; Rosenfeld, Barry; Liu, Ying et al. (2017) Using item response theory (IRT) to reduce patient burden when assessing desire for hastened death. Psychol Assess 29:349-353 |
| Saracino, Rebecca; Kolva, Elissa; Rosenfeld, Barry et al. (2015) Measuring social support in patients with advanced medical illnesses: An analysis of the Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire. Palliat Support Care 13:1153-63 |
| Rosenfeld, Barry; Pessin, Hayley; Marziliano, Allison et al. (2014) Does desire for hastened death change in terminally ill cancer patients? Soc Sci Med 111:35-40 |
| Kolva, Elissa; Rosenfeld, Barry; Pessin, Hayley et al. (2011) Anxiety in terminally ill cancer patients. J Pain Symptom Manage 42:691-701 |
| Atkinson, Thomas M; Rosenfeld, Barry D; Sit, Laura et al. (2011) Using confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate construct validity of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). J Pain Symptom Manage 41:558-65 |
| Olden, Megan; Rosenfeld, Barry; Pessin, Hayley et al. (2009) Measuring depression at the end of life: is the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale a valid instrument? Assessment 16:43-54 |
| Pessin, Hayley; Galietta, Michele; Nelson, Christian J et al. (2008) Burden and benefit of psychosocial research at the end of life. J Palliat Med 11:627-32 |
| Jacobson, Colleen M; Rosenfeld, Barry; Pessin, Hayley et al. (2008) Depression and IL-6 blood plasma concentrations in advanced cancer patients. Psychosomatics 49:64-6 |
| Pessin, Hayley; Olden, Megan; Jacobson, Colleen et al. (2005) Clinical assessment of depression in terminally ill cancer patients: a practical guide. Palliat Support Care 3:319-24 |
| McClain-Jacobson, Colleen; Rosenfeld, Barry; Kosinski, Anne et al. (2004) Belief in an afterlife, spiritual well-being and end-of-life despair in patients with advanced cancer. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 26:484-6 |
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