Recently, cancer has emerged as an important health problem, which is not just a medical and physical disease but a severe chronic condition with dispositional and social components. 

A recent study analyzed the diagnoses and treatments of oncologic inpatients who were requested psychiatric consultations.

The study included 139 consulted patients of 828 inpatients who were hospitalized in the Oncology and Radiation Department and obtained their Sociodemographic data and examination findings from electronic file records retrospectively. 

The most common cancer was found to be gastric (14.9%); followed by breast (12.2%) and lung cancer. The most common psychiatric disease among these patients was found to be depression involving 39.3% of women and 24% of men. The most preferred medications among these patients were found to be escitalopram (35.4%) followed by quetiapine (20.8%).

Thus, psychological evaluation of cancer patients is necessary during their hospital stay and escitalopram is the most preferred medication among these patients.

Cansel N, Unal A. Evaluation of psychiatric consultations requested for cancer patients hospitalized in a university hospital. Ann Med Res 2021;28(2):390-4 390. DOI: 10.5455/annalsmedres.2020.06.636