1854P - The role of “1 minute” time perception in evaluating depression and anxiety in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy

Background

Impaired perception of time has been associated with many psychiatric and neurological diseases. Time perception has been studied with different validated scales in the literature. However, the length of these scales limits its feasibility. The aim of our study was to evaluate the relationship of “1 minute” time perception with depression and anxiety in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

Methods

The cancer patients receiving active systemic therapy were included in the study. Time perception assessment was performed by testing how they perceived the 1-minute period. The patients were asked to guess the length of 1 minute by using a chronometer. Time perception duration (TPD) were recorded. The median 39 seconds was used to categorize patients as fast and slow time perception. Depression and anxiety were evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Results

In the study; 242 patients with a median age of 61 (33-88 years) were evaluated. In the TPD evaluation, the median estimation time was 39s (7-135sec) and 50.4% was found to be rapid time perception (<39sec). Anxiety and depression scores were recorded as high in 12% of the patients. There was no significant correlation between TPD and anxiety (r=0.027, p=0.68) and depression scores (r= 0.017, p= 0.79). TPD was similar between the groups with high and normal anxiety scores (39 vs 39 sec, p= 0.90) and those with short perception patients were similar in both groups (51.7% vs 50.2%, p=0.51). TPD was shorter in those with high depression scores (34 vs 40s, p= 0.37). Those with rapid TDP were more common in these patients, but this did not reach statistical significance (58.6% vs 49.3%, p= 0.22). In the multivariate analysis. Female gender and low income were found to be risk factors for high anxiety scores.

Conclusions

The 1-minute time perception assessment could not be shown to be effective in predicting depression and anxiety scores. In our study, in which the group with high depression/anxiety scores was low, the small sample size may be the reason for the insignificant result. Testing the efficacy of 1 minute time perception in larger groups can provide important data to the literature.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.