South Asians are five times more likely to be severely depressed following cancer diagnosis in Britain, according to a new research.
The first study of its kind to investigate depression among British white people and South Asians in the UK found that people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan origin, classified as British South Asians, appeared to suffer more pain.
It has led researchers to conclude that this could be a way of drawing attention to their psychological distress.
"This is the first study that has compared how British South Asians and British white patients cope with cancer. Our findings are strictly only relevant to the study group and patients from the county of Leicestershire.
However, we think it is highly likely that there is a higher incidence of depression among British South Asian cancer patients elsewhere in the UK and our findings have important implications for the NHS," said Prof Paul Symonds from the University of Leicester, the lead author of the study.
"Depression is one of the strongest determinants of health-related quality of life and it can influence medical care and participation in treatment. It may also be linked with other serious outcomes including mortality.
It should be of major concern to healthcare policymakers in the UK that this study provides evidence that there is a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms among South Asian patients," he added.
Overall, 53.8 per cent of the British South Asian samples used were born in the Indian subcontinent, 33 per cent in Africa and 12.9 per cent in the UK.
The researchers investigated whether there are differences in depressive symptoms among 94 British South Asian patients with cancer compared to 185 British white patients over a nine-month period.
The research, led by the University of Leicester, was part funded by Leicestershire and Rutland based charity Hope Against Cancer and the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, and is published in 'British Medical Journal Open'.
British South Asian patients had twice the self-reported rate of depressive symptoms than British White patients and five times the incidence of severe depression.
These differences persisted for nine months after the baseline assessment.
"The reasons for the difference in the incidence of depressive symptoms are complex. British South Asian patients use potentially maladaptive coping strategies more frequently than British white patients, particularly hopelessness, helplessness, fatalism, avoidance and denial.
At baseline the use of these maladaptive strategies correlated with a higher incidence of depression... It is most likely that the rates of depressive symptoms are under-reported since anecdotally those who were most distressed often did not feel able to participate in this study," said Prof Symonds, who worked with colleagues from University Hospital of Leicester NHS Trust on the study.
