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

OBJECTIVE: A new screening tool has been developed to predict the psychological needs of patients with oral cancer.

METHOD: The 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.

RESULTS: Negative 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.

CONCLUSIONS: Personality 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.