Supportive care of the patient with pancreatic cancer: role of the psycho-oncologist.

Many people who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer react with a normal level of sadness. In others, however, depression represents a concomitant illness, perhaps with a biologic basis. Regardless of their origin, these mood disorders are controllable. The role of the psycho-oncologist is to distinguish normal emotional reactions to having advanced cancer, in which depressive symptoms resolve gradually within a week or two with support from family and friends, from symptoms of comorbid psychiatric illness, which warrant more extensive treatment, such as a combination of supportive psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral techniques, and psychopharmaceutical agents.