Prevalence and correlates of anticipatory nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients.

Forty-seven of 225 (21%) consecutive cancer patients were found to experience nausea and/or vomiting prior to a chemotherapy treatment. Multivariate examination of demographic and clinical characteristics showed patients with anticipatory side effects to report more severe posttreatment emesis, to report their most severe posttreatment nausea as occurring later after treatment, and to be more likely to be taking cisplatin than patients without anticipatory side effects. Seventy percent of the patients with anticipatory nausea and/or vomiting attributed the side effects to a psychologic etiology.