Colorectal cancer screening - no psychological harm
A new paper published in the British Journal of Cancer studied the potential psychological harm of screening for colorectal cancer. Patients were invited for colonoscopy and then completed questionnaires relating to anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life.
The researchers found that a positive screening result did not increase participants’ level of anxiety or depression, or decrease participants’ level of health-related quality of life. Participants who received a negative result reported decreased anxiety and improvement on some health-related quality of life dimensions. However, no change was considered to be of clinical relevance.
The article can be found here.