Screening for psychological distress: A new approach to identify the patient's psychological needs in a pilot study on oral cancer patients

ObjectiveA new screening tool has been developed to predict the psychological needs of patients with oral cancer.MethodThe new screening method was developed inductively. Screening was pretested using interviews and implemented with 71 patients with oral cancer. Factor analysis was carried out to shorten the questionnaire.ResultsNegative and positive aspects explain forty per cent of the variance in distress, which should be adequate for a first screening. Seventy-nine per cent of the items deal with stable traits such as personality. The patients' objective need for support has to be another important part of this new screening.ConclusionsPersonality and other traits are good predictors for psychological distress. Longitudinal studies need to assess these new aspects of screening cancer patients to find out if they need psycho-oncological support.