Is my patient suffering clinically significant emotional distress? Demonstration of a probabilities approach to evaluating algorithms for screening for distress

Abstract

Goals of work: Screening oncology patients for clinically significant emotional distress is a recommended standard of care in psycho-oncology. However, principles regarding the interpretation of screening and diagnostic tests developed in other areas of medicine have not been widely applied in psycho-oncology. This paper explores the application of the concepts of likelihood ratios and post-test probabilities to the interpretation of psychological screening instruments and demonstrates the development of an algorithm for screening for emotional distress and common psychopathology. Materials and methods: Three hundred forty oncology/haematology outpatients at the Calvary Mater Newcastle, Aust..