Depression is a very common problem and as many as 1 in 5 people will be effected by the illness at some time during their lives. There may be a number of different reasons for someone with cancer being depressed.

We all have days when we feel down or blue, but when you have these feelings for weeks on end and find that neither you nor your friends and family can lift you out of your low mood these are key symptoms which suggest you have developed depression. Making this diagnosis is important because depression is a condition which can be very successfully treated.

Over the years there have been suggestions that taking tamoxifen might increase the chances of becoming depressed. Recently, however, a very large study in the USA, looking at more than 11,000 women, found that depression is no more common among those who were taking tamoxifen than those who were not. So tamoxifen itself does not seem to be a cause of depression.

Depression is quite a common problem for people who have cancer. It may be triggered by learning the diagnosis or coping with the stresses of treatment and its side effects or by the changes in lifestyle that can result from having the cancer. The important thing to know is that whatever the cause, if depression is a problem it is something that can be greatly relieved or cured completely with simple treatment. If you are concerned about your mother, it may help to encourage her to seek help from her doctors and nurses