Psychological variables as predictors of nausea intensity in patients receiving chemotherapy

• Purpose: To assess whether patients with different psychological profiles show different patterns of postchemotherapy nausea intensity regardless of the emetogenicity of the chemotherapy schedule. • Material and methods: Sixty-three patients with different diagnoses were interwieved before receiving their chemotherapy schedule and some psychological variables were assessed using visual analogue scales (subjective health perception, fear about the illness, and expectancies of experiencing side effects). Nausea intensity was also assessed after treatment. • Results: Patients with higher levels of nausea had a distressful psychological profile prior to receiving chemotherapy (higher levels of fear, higher expectancies of experiencing side effects, or subjective health impairment). • Conclusions: Those psychological profiles could be used as a screening method to identify patients who are at a high risk to develop an exacerbated nausea intensity after receiving chemotherapy.