Temporal Trends in Mental Health Terminology in Skin Cancer Clinical Trials from the ClinicalTrials.gov Database
Mental Health in Skin Cancer Trials
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18192/uojm.v16i1.7898Keywords:
Anxiety, depression, Stress, Distress, Mental health, Clinical Trials, oncology, skin neoplasmsAbstract
Objective: This study aims to assess temporal trends in the inclusion of mental health (MH)-related terminology in skin cancer (SC) clinical trials as a proxy for research interest, and to evaluate whether the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the appearance of such terms.
Methods: This retrospective descriptive analysis extracted 6,063 SC clinical trials from the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s ClinicalTrials.gov database, dating back to 1976. The annual count and frequency of the terms “anxiety”, “stress”, “distress”, and “depression” were tabulated using a Python program.
Results: The year of study initiation was significantly positively associated with the appearance of these MH terms, while the COVID-19 pandemic had no significant impact. The analysis was limited to terminology on ClinicalTrials.gov and may not fully capture the extent of MH considerations in study design or outcomes.
Conclusion: These findings suggest a small, yet growing, emphasis on MH in SC clinical trials.
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Objectif : Cette étude vise à évaluer les tendances temporelles concernant l’inclusion de termes liés à la santé mentale (SM) dans les essais cliniques sur le cancer de la peau (CP), en tant qu’indicateur de l’intérêt de la recherche, et à déterminer si la pandémie de COVID-19 a influencé l’apparition de ces termes.
Méthodes : Cette analyse descriptive rétrospective a extrait 6,063 essais cliniques sur le CP de la base de données ClinicalTrials.gov de la Bibliothèque nationale de médecine des États-Unis, remontant jusqu’à 1976. Le nombre annuel et la fréquence des termes « anxiety », « stress », « distress » et « depression » ont été tabulés à l’aide d’un programme Python.
Résultats : L’année de lancement de l’étude était significativement et positivement associée à l’apparition de ces termes liés à la SM, tandis que la pandémie de COVID-19 n’a pas eu d’impact significatif. L’analyse était limitée à la terminologie présente sur ClinicalTrials.gov et pourrait ne pas refléter pleinement l’ampleur des considérations accordées à la SM dans la conception des études ou leurs résultats.
Conclusion : Ces résultats suggèrent une importance modeste, mais croissante, sur la SM dans les essais cliniques sur le CP.
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