Dr S. K. Chathurvedi, professor of psychiatry with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, is researching the rare subject of psycho-oncology.
He says that psychiatry has an important role to play in treating cancer patients and the intervention has to go beyond the patient to reach out to the relatives and also the oncologist. What he means is that doctors treating cancer patients need a psychiatrist’s help.
“It’s important how the oncologist communicates with the patient and the family. More importantly, there are bodily symptoms that emerge on cancer patients due to psychological stress and other related disorders.
These symptoms are usually taken by the oncologist as bodily symptoms of cancer itself and wrongly treated.
So, the oncologist needs the help of a psychiatrist, or the oncologist should be trained in psychiatry also,” he told this correspondent on the sidelines of the Indian Psychiatric Society meet in Kochi on Friday.
Dr Chathurvedi said that its high time psychiatry is included in the curriculum of oncology so that the issue is taken care of at the academic level itself. He said that the training should also be extended to nurses of the oncology wing.
Dr Chathurvedi said that currently, 40 per cent of cancer patients in the country are experiencing psychiatric disorders such as, adjustment disorder, depression, anxiety and anger and sleep disorder etc.
“It would always help the doctor to deal with details about the disease in a transparent manner with the relatives or the patient. But, in any case, patients should not skip the medicine prescribed,” he said.
