Evaluating the Rate of Depression and Self-Compassion and Their Associated Relationship in Cancer Patients Referring Oncology Ward of Shahid Baghaee Hospital in Ahvaz, Southwest of Iran During 2017

Background: depression is considered one of the most common psychiatric diseases in cancer. Fewstudies showed that self-compassion was considered reliable predictor of mental health. Also, anincrease in self-compassion predicts the improvement of psychological health over time. Extensivestudies have not been conducted in this context and, there are no accurate evidence in cancerpatients. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the rate of depression and selfcompassion and their associated relationship in cancer patients referring oncology ward of AhvazShahid Baghaee Hospital.Material and Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, 106 cancer patients undergoingsurgical, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments in oncology ward of Ahvaz Shahid BaghaeeHospital were enrolled by available sampling method in 2017. Data-collecting method was based onself-report and filling the questionnaire. Data-collecting tools consisted of demographicquestionnaire, Beck Depression Scale, and Self-Compassion Scale (SCS-LF). SPSS-20 softwaredescriptive statistic, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data.Findings: The average age of participants was 41/14+_15/12 years. Out of all participants, 65patients (61.3%) were male, 69patients (65.1%) were married, and 73 patients (68.9%) were urbanresidents. Chemotherapy was the most used treatment in these patients (70.8%). The mean score ofself-compassion domain was observed as 3.2+_0.41, indicating average level of self-compassion.The rest of sextuple scores of self-compassion domain were in an average scope. Mean score ofdepression domain was 19.87+_12.55, indicating major depression in these patients. significant,reverse correlation between the mean of total score of depression and the mean score of self compassion and its total domains, except for the feeling of human commonality was observed(p<0.05).Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that there was major depression in thesepatients as well as negative correlation between depression and self-compassion. Therefore, it isnecessary to perform psychological interventions, with an emphasis on compassion component toreduce the depression in these patients. Identification of other depression-related components canhelp increase the current knowledge of depression in the patients and design effective nursing andpsychological interventions.