Impact of Psychiatric Diagnoses and Treatment on Postoperative Outcomes Among Patients Undergoing Surgery for Colorectal Cancer.

Ratcliff CG, Massarweh NN, Sansgiry S, Dindo L, Cully JA. Impact of Psychiatric Diagnoses and Treatment on Postoperative Outcomes Among Patients Undergoing Surgery for Colorectal Cancer. Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.). 2021 Apr 1; 72(4):391-398.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric diagnoses may be a risk factor for poor colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery outcomes. The authors investigated the risk of psychiatric diagnoses and benefit of mental health treatment for surgery outcomes among CRC patients. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing CRC surgery in the 2000-2014 period identified documentation of psychiatric diagnosis and mental health treatment (no treatment, medication only, psychotherapy only, or both medication and psychotherapy) 30 days before surgery. Associations between psychiatric diagnoses, mental health treatment, and postoperative outcomes (postoperative complications, length of stay [LOS], and 90-day readmission rate) were evaluated with multivariable generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: Among 58,961 patients undergoing CRC surgery, 9,029 (15.3%) had psychiatric diagnoses, 4,601 (51.0%) of whom received preoperative mental health treatment (90.0% psychiatric medication, 6.7% psychotherapy, and 3.0% medication and psychotherapy). Patients with psychiatric diagnoses had an increased risk for postoperative complications (odds ratio [OR] = 1.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03-1.15) and 90-day readmission (OR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.06-1.17) compared with patients without psychiatric diagnoses. Patients with psychiatric diagnoses who received no mental health treatment or only medication had a 7%-17% increased risk for postoperative complications and 90-day readmission compared with patients without psychiatric diagnoses. Patients who received medication only also had a 4% increase in LOS relative to patients without psychiatric diagnoses. Patients with psychiatric diagnoses receiving only psychotherapy and patients without psychiatric diagnoses had similar postoperative outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative psychiatric diagnoses were associated with worse postoperative outcomes. Surgical quality-improvement efforts should focus on identifying patients with preoperative psychiatric diagnoses and addressing these conditions presurgery.