Individual Factors Contributing to Nausea in First-Time Chemotherapy Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study

Conclusion: In this female cohort, younger patients with lower initial quality of life and a positive history of nausea were at higher risk to develop nausea after first time chemotherapy. These patients may benefit from psychological co-interventions that aim to enhance quality of life. Introduction Besides pain and constipation, nausea and vomiting are among the most disabling physical symptoms in patients receiving chemotherapy (Breen et al., 2009). In contrast to vomiting, the treatment of nausea remains challenging (Andrews and Sanger, 2014). Several risk factors have been described for the development of post-treatment nausea, including younger age (Dodd et al., 1996; Montgomery et al., 2010; Rha et al., 2016), female sex (Lohr, 2008), history of nausea during motion or pregnancy (Roscoe et al., 2004; Lohr, 2008), higher emotional distress (Blasco et al., 2000), and lower quality of life (Colagiuri et al., 2008). In addition, the expectancy of chemotherapy-induced nausea is related to the frequency and severity of nausea as a side effect of chemotherapy (Colagiuri et al., 2008; Sohl et al., 2009; Colagiuri and Zachariae, 2010; Devlin et al., 2017; Fletcher et al., 2018). Expectancy-related side effects that cannot be attributed to the pharmacological or other active ingredients are commonly referred to as “nocebo effects” (Barsky et al., 2002). Nocebo effects account for a significant proportion of the reported side effects of medical treatments (...
Source: Frontiers in Pharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research