Psychosocial effects of appearance changes due to cancer treatment and needs for information and supportive care in Japanese cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Cancer treatment can alter patient appearance, leading to psychological, social, and behavioral issues. This study aimed to investigate distress and difficulties related to appearance concerns in Japanese cancer patients and to identify information and support needs among them. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey using the Derriford Appearance Scale 59 (DAS59) among cancer patients with a prior history of chemotherapy, molecular targeted therapy, or immunotherapy, who were recruited from the Departments of Medical Oncology and Psychosomatic Medicine, Kindai University Hospital. RESULTS: Participants were 114 patients with a mean age of 62.9 years; 70.2% were female, 86.0% had metastatic or locally advanced unresectable cancer, and 78.1% had concerns about some aspect of their appearance. Mean DAS59 full-scale score was 77.7 ± 36.4. Younger and female participants were found to have higher full-scale scores in univariate analysis (P < .05 for both), and younger participants were found to have higher full-scale scores in multivariate analysis (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: DAS59 scores had a wide distribution, suggesting that psychological distress due to appearance changes showed large individual differences. Young and female patients tended to have high DAS59 full-scale scores, but some older and male patients also had high scores. Basic information regarding appearance changes should be provided to all patients before initiating cancer treatment. Both information provision prior to treatment and care at the time of actual appearance changes are important, and should be handled through a multidisciplinary approach.

Avoiding diagnostic errors in psychosomatic medicine: a case series study.

BACKGROUND: Non-organic lesions or diseases of unknown origin are sometimes misdiagnosed as "psychogenic" disorders or "psychosomatic" diseases. For the quality of life and safety of patients, recent attention has focused on diagnostic error. The aim of this study was to clarify the factors that affected misdiagnoses in psychosomatic medicine by examining typical cases and to explore strategies that reduce diagnostic errors. CASE PRESENTATION: The study period was from January 2001 to August 2017. The data of patients who had visited the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Kindai University Hospital and its branches, Sakai Hospital and Nihonbashi Clinic, were collected. All patients were aged 16 years or over. Multiple factors, such as age, sex, presenting symptoms, initial diagnosis, final diagnosis, sources of re-diagnosis and types of diagnostic errors were retrospectively analyzed from the medical charts of 20 patients. Among them, four typical cases can be described as follows. Case 1; a 79-year-old woman, initially diagnosed with psychogenic vomiting due to depression that was changed to gastric torsion as the final diagnosis. Case 2; a 24-year-old man, diagnosed with an eating disorder that was later changed to esophageal achalasia. Case 10; a 60-year-old woman's diagnosis changed from conversion disorder to localized muscle atrophy. Case 19; a 68-year-old man, appetite loss from depression due to cancer changed to secondary adrenal insufficiency, isolated ACTH deficiency (IAD). CONCLUSION: This study showed that multiple factors related to misdiagnoses were combined and had a mutual influence. However, they can be summarized into two important clinical observations, diagnostic system-related problems and provider issues. Provider issues contain mainly cognitive biases such as Anchoring, Availability, Confirmation bias, Delayed diagnosis, and Representativeness. In order to avoid diagnostic errors, both a diagnostic system approach and the reduction of cognitive biases are needed. Psychosomatic medicine doctors should pay more attention to physical symptoms and systemic examination and can play an important role in accepting a perception of patients based on a good, non prejudicial patient/physician relationship.