Psychiatric aspects of radiotherapy

The authors evaluated 200 cancer patients, half of whom received betatron therapy and half linear accelerator therapy. The incidence and severity of anxiety and depression were high in both groups; as radiotherapy continued these symptoms tended to decrease in intensity among the patients treated with the linear accelerator and to increase among the betatron patients. Patients who denied knowledge of their diagnosis were initially less depressed and remained less depressed than those who knew or suspected that they had cancer.