The Prevalence and Impact of Concurrent Psychologic Medical Care Among Pediatric Orthopaedic Oncology Patients Undergoing Treatment for Bone or Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Psychiatric comorbidities impact over 20% of pediatric patients in the year following diagnosis of sarcoma. Psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy reduce psychiatric comorbidity during pediatric cancer treatment, but data amongst pediatric sarcoma patients is limited. Among our 31 sarcoma patients, 55% received psychotherapy alone and 16% received both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. There was no significant difference in PROMIS anxiety or depression scores between no treatment, psychotherapy alone, or combination therapy which may suggest that our current methods of recognizing patients needing a psychology referral, and the subsequent treatment have been successful in protecting against and treating mental health comorbidities in sarcoma treatment.