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Although depression can worsen the effects of concurrent physical disease, it is often underdiagnosed and ineffectively treated. Researchers in Scotland screened patients in a cancer clinic and identified 200 with major depressive disorder, no other severe psychiatric morbidities, and expected survival of at least 6 months. All patients continued usual care with general practitioners and oncologists, who were informed of the depression diagnoses; half were randomly assigned to participate in individual depression-treatment sessions with a cancer nurse during a 3-month period. The nurses used a detailed treatment manual and were supervised by psychiatrists.
After 3 months, patients in the intervention group were significantly more likely than…