Мental health in patients with head and neck cancer: literary review

Introduction: Analysis of research founding in previous research papers with focus on mental health issues among patients with head and neck cancer shows considerable levels of emotional distress. However, the actual rates of clinically relevant mental health symptoms and disorders among this patients remain unknown.
Materials and methods: A literature search was carried out by authors of this paper. Web of Science database (Clarivate Analytics) was searched, incorporating the Web of Science Core Collection, the BIOSIS Citation Index, MEDLINE as well as Cochrane Central Register of Reviews, and PsycINFO databases. The following keywords were used: (“cancer” OR “neoplasm” OR “tumor” OR “malignant”) AND (“head and neck” OR “head & neck” OR “larynx” OR “oral cavity” OR “salivary” OR “nasal cavity” OR “tongue” OR “tonsil”) AND (“anxious” OR “insomnia” OR “post-traumatic” OR “PTSD” OR“ stress” OR “distress” OR suicide” OR “depress” OR “anxiety ”OR “mental health” ).
Results: Our findings and analysis from the literary review reveal that patients with head and neck cancer are particularly vulnerable to a spectrum of mental health symptoms and disorders, with great proportions of them experiencing distress, body distress, depressive symptoms, even suicide, anxiety, insomnia, posttraumatic symptoms.
Conclusion: The conclusions drawn from these findings are manifold and clinically applicative. It is evident that head and neck cancers significantly impact the mental health of those affected, extending across multiple domains, as our findings point out. In spite of that, it is noteworthy that the prevalence of clinically relevant symptoms is much higher compared with the prevalence of criterion-meeting mental disorders for all the studied domains. Even though, the findings of this study must be interpreted in light of certain limitations, it shows the necessity of future multidisciplinary research approach.
Key words: mental health domains; head and neck cancer; literary review; multidisciplinary approach