Depressive phenomena, physical symptom distress, and functional status among women with breast cancer.

The nature and scope of depression and its relationship to physical symptom distress and functional status were examined in 79 women 3 to 7 months after breast cancer diagnosis. Psychiatric diagnostic criteria for depressive disorders and a depression rating scale were used to measure depression. Nine percent of the sample had depressive disorder, and 24% had elevated depressive symptoms. Women with elevated depressive symptoms had more physical symptom distress (p < .0001) and more impaired functioning (p < .0001) than subjects with depressive disorders and without depression. Multiple regression was used to examine the contribution of key variables to functional status. Two variables accounted for 35% of the variance in functional status: symptom distress (28%) and depressive symptoms (7%).