Demoralisation and its link with depression, psychological adjustment and suicidality among cancer patients: A network psychometrics approach

BACKGROUND: Demoralisation is a clinically significant problem among cancer patients with a prevalence of 13%-18%. It is defined by difficulty in adjusting to a stressor, wherein the person feels trapped in their predicament and experiences helplessness, hopelessness, loss of confidence and loss of meaning in life. Demoralisation has a strong link with the desire for hastened death and suicidal ideation among the medically ill. This study explored whether a group of symptoms could be identified, distinct from depression, but consistent with adjustment difficulties with demoralisation and linked to ideation of death and suicide.

METHODS: Exploratory Graph Analysis, a network psychometrics technique, was conducted on a large German study of 1529 cancer patients. Demoralisation was measured with the Demoralisation Scale II and depressive symptoms with the PHQ-9.

RESULTS: A network of symptoms, with four stable communities, was identified: 1. Loss of hope and meaning; 2. Non-specific emotionality; 3. Entrapment; 4. Depressive symptoms. The first three communities were clearly distinct from the PHQ-9 depressive symptoms, except for suicidality and fear of failure. Community 1, Loss of hope and meaning, had the strongest association with thoughts of death and suicide. Hopelessness, loss of role in life, tiredness, pointlessness and feeling trapped were the most central symptoms in the network.

CONCLUSIONS: Communities 1 to 3 are consistent with poor coping without anhedonia and other classic depression symptoms, but linked to suicidal ideation. For people facing the existential threat of cancer, this may indicate poor psychological adjustment to the stressors of their illness.