Cilj istraživanja: Cilj istraživanja bio je utvrditi učestalost depresije u bolesnica s karcinomom dojke te utvrditi postoje li razlike u učestalosti depresije među bolesnicama koje su na kemoterapiji i bolesnica koje su na praćenju po završetku aktivne terapije. Materijali i metode: Presječnim istraživanjem obuhvaćeno je 57 ispitanica koje su podijeljene u dvije skupine s obzirom na status terapije. Prva skupina bolesnica bile su bolesnice na adjuvantnoj kemoterapiji dok je druga skupina bolesnica bila na praćenju najmanje dvije godine po završetku aktivne adjuvantne terapije. Istraživanje je provedeno na Klinici za onkologiju i radioterapiju Kliničkog bolničkog centra Split u razdoblju od svibnja do srpnja 2017. godine. Učestalost depresije utvrđivala se koristeći se standardiziranim Beckovim upitnikom za depresiju (BDI). U analizi podataka korišten je Hi kvadrat test, Wilocoxon signed rank test, te Mann-Whitney U test. Razina statističke značajnosti postavljena je na P<0,05. Rezultati: U ovom istraživanju uspjeli smo dokazati statistički značajno veću učestalost depresije u cijeloj skupini ispitanica koje boluju od karcinoma dojke (24,56%) naspram prevalencije depresije kod žena u općoj populaciji (10-12%). Među našim rezultatima najučestalija je blaga depresija (15,79%), zatim slijedi umjerena depresija (5,26%) te teška depresija (3,51%). Iako je iz rezultata vidljivo da je depresija uočena u većoj mjeri u skupini bolesnica koje su na kemoterapiji (29,41%) od bolesnica koje su na praćenju po završetku aktivne terapije (17,39%), nažalost ta razlika nije statistički značajna i nismo uspjeli dokazati da je udio depresije veća kod žena koje su na kemoterapiji. Zaključak: Potrebni su daljnja istraživanja na većem uzorku ispitanika, kao možda i istraživanja drugačijeg ustroja da bi se dokazala uzročno posljedična veza između stanja upale nastalog zbog terapije karcinoma dojke i njegovog djelovanja na ispoljavanje depresije. Također su potrebni daljnji napori da bi se medicinsko osoblje educiralo o simptomatologiji i prepoznavanju depresije kod onkoloških bolesnika.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the frequency of depression in breast cancer patients. Furthermore the aim was to examine if there is a significant diference in depression frequency between patients who are receiveing adjuvant chemotherapy and patients who were in follow up at least two years after finishing their therapy. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study included 57 patients divided into two groups regarding therapy status. The first group were patients that were receiving adjuvant chemotherapy (n=34) while the other group were patients in follow up at least two years after finishing adjuvant therapy (n=23). Research was conducted on Clinic for oncology and radiotherapy of Clinical hospital center in Split from May till July of 2017. Depression frequency was determined using Beck's Invetory for depression (BDI). In analyzing dana the Hi sqared test, Wilocoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U test were used. The level of significance was set at P<0,05. Results: In this study we proved the higher frequency of depression among breast cancer patients (24,56%) when compared with prevalence of depression of general population (10-12%). Among our results most common was mild depression (15,79%) folowed by moderate depression (5,26%) and severe depression (3,51%). Although the results show there is a higher depression frequency in group of patients that were receiving chemotherapy (29,41%) compared to the group that was in follow up (17,39%), unfortunately the diference is not statistically significant. We were not able to prove that the frequency of depression is higher in brest cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Conclusion: Further studys on a biger sample of patients are needed as well as maybe a different type of study (longitudinal study) so the link between inflamation caused by therapy of breast cancer as a trigger for depression would be proved. Also further efforts are needed so that medical personnel would be educated about simptomatology and recognizing depression in breast cancer patients.