Although low-income minority cancer patients who are clinically depressed are most in need of psychosocial interventions, they may be more likely to dropout of treatment, with psychosocial support seldom being assessed and the inability to identify and customize effective interventions. Psychotherapy and antidepressant medication interventions are not only effective for reducing depression among cancer patients, but also have direct effects on response to chemotherapy, cancer treatment adherence, and quality of life. Although over the past few decades there has been increasingly more studies on the prevalence of depression, treatment dropout, and testing interventions and strategies for their resolution, such research still has gaps, especially for depressed ethnic minority cancer patient populations. Studies often omit ethnic minority sample descriptions; lack a guiding theoretical framework; present methodological questions; or provide minimal depth to understanding the reasons for dropout. The goal of this study is to explore and generate new theory on depression treatment dropout for cancer patients (using a qualitative grounded theory approach). The perspectives of a patient who drops out of depression treatment will be gained through in-depth, telephone interviews. Additionally, depression provider clinical notes will be analyzed to identify dropout factors from a provider's perspective (using template analysis). Such factors will be used and built upon with provider focus groups, which will additionally be used to identify feasible strategies that depression care providers can use to reduce dropout among clinically depressed cancer patients, but can also be used to influence policy. ? ? ? ?
| Wells, Anjanette A; Palinkas, Lawrence A; Shon, En-Jung et al. (2013) Low-income cancer patients in depression treatment: dropouts and completers. J Behav Health Serv Res 40:427-41 |
