degree of depression and the need for counseling among women with breast cancer in kerman chemotherapeutic centers

objectives: the present study was carried out to determine the rate of depression and the need for counseling among women with breast cancer in kerman chemotherapy centers. method: 120 subjects were selected through convenient sampling within one year from among the female breast cancer patients calling on chemotherapy centers in kerman. the beck depression inventory (bdi) was administered together with a questionnaire on counseling needs. the collected data was then analyzed with the help of kruskal-wallis test and chi square tests. findings: the results demonstrated that the age range for most of the patients (68.3%) was 35 to 55, and that the degree of depression among 40.8% of the patients ranged from medium to high. none of the patients had received therapeutic counseling services, but 60% of them believed that they needed such services during cancer treatment. the need for counseling was extremely high among 91.6% of the patients. there was a significant difference between the patients' occupational/educational status and their degree of depression, the more educated they were, the less depressed they proved to be. also, working women were less depressed than housewives. the greatest need for counseling was witnessed among the patients who received medicine and radio-chemotherapy (59.3%). no relationship was found between depression and the need for counseling.