Zhu XX, Zhao S, Xu Q, Tang R, Xu LX, Zhou YJ, Zhang DY. Fluoxetine plus psychological intervention for chemotherapy-managed colon cancer patients: Impact on mood and influencing factors. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(8): 117931 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.117931]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dai-Ying Zhang, Operation Room, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, No. 25 Taiping Street, Jiangyang District, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China. zhangdaiying202112@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology
Article-Type of This Article
research-article
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Xiao-Xia Zhu, Department of Cardiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Shan Zhao, Qin Xu, Lin-Xia Xu, Ye-Jiang Zhou, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Rui Tang, Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Dai-Ying Zhang, Operation Room, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Zhu XX designed the research and wrote the first manuscript; Zhu XX, Zhao S, Xu Q, Xu LX, Zhou YJ and Zhang DY contributed to conceiving the research and analyzing data; Zhu XX and Tang R conducted the analysis and provided guidance for the research; all authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethic Committee of The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, No. 2024-124.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Corresponding author: Dai-Ying Zhang, Operation Room, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, No. 25 Taiping Street, Jiangyang District, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China. zhangdaiying202112@163.com
Received: February 6, 2026 Revised: March 31, 2026 Accepted: April 29, 2026 Published online: August 19, 2026 Processing time: 165 Days and 23.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Emotional disorders of varying severity are common among chemotherapy-treated colon cancer (CC) patients and may hinder recovery.
AIM
To investigate the effects of fluoxetine combined with psychological intervention on mood and to identify associated risk factors in chemotherapy-treated CC patients.
METHODS
A total of 145 patients with CC treated at The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University between April 2023 and April 2025 were enrolled. The control group (n = 66) received psychological intervention plus chemotherapy, whereas the observation group (n = 79) additionally received fluoxetine. Outcomes included short-term efficacy, adverse mood assessed using the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and Self-Rating Depression Scale, serum neurotransmitters (5-hydroxytryptamine and norepinephrine), clinical safety (mucositis, diarrhea, alopecia, anorexia, nausea, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, and agitation), and quality-of-life assessed using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Questionnaire Core 30. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to identify factors influencing emotional improvement in chemotherapy-treated CC patients.
RESULTS
Short-term efficacy and clinical safety were comparable between groups. The observation group showed greater improvement in adverse mood, serum neurotransmitters, and quality-of-life than the control group. Regression analysis identified treatment modality as an independent factor influencing mood improvement in chemotherapy-treated CC patients.
CONCLUSION
Fluoxetine combined with psychological intervention is significantly effective in improving mood, normalizing neurotransmitter levels, and enhancing quality-of-life in chemotherapy-treated CC patients. Psychological intervention alone may increase the risk of inadequate emotional improvement in such patients.
Core Tip: This study aimed to investigate the effects of fluoxetine combined with psychological intervention on mood in chemotherapy-treated colon cancer patients and explore associated determinants. Multidimensional assessment indicates that the combined therapy provides significant clinical benefits, including improvement of adverse mood, modulation of serum neurotransmitters, and enhancement of quality-of-life, without increasing the incidence of adverse events. Further analysis suggests that this combined approach may reduce the risk of inadequate mood improvement in this population.
