• Relationship between treatment-provoked social anxiety and avoidance [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Relationship between pre-cancer psychiatric diagnosis and post-treatment social anxiety and avoidance [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Quality of life [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
• Comparison of social anxiety and avoidance in patients with head and neck cancer to patients with lung cancer [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

RATIONALE: Patients who undergo treatment for head and neck cancer may become anxious and avoid contact with other people. Learning how cancer treatment may cause anxiety in patients with head and neck cancer may help improve the quality of life in these patients.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying anxiety and avoidance of others in patients previously treated for head and neck cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the relationship between treatment-provoked social anxiety and avoidance in patients previously treated for head and neck cancer.
• Determine the relationship between pre-cancer psychiatric diagnosis and post-treatment social anxiety and avoidance in these patients.
• Determine the effect of social anxiety and/or avoidance on the quality of life of these patients.
• Investigate the specificity of these relationships in patients with head and neck cancer by comparing patients with head and neck cancer to patients with lung cancer.

OUTLINE: This is a cross-sectional study. Patients are stratified according to prior treatment type (significantly impairing [surgery] vs less impairing [chemotherapy/radiotherapy]).

Patients undergo a face-to-face interview with a mental health clinician over 2 hours. Patients complete multiple psychiatric/psychological assessments during the interview, including the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID); the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (SAS); the Performance Status Scale for Head and Neck Cancer Patients (PSS-HN); the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI); the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI); Response to Stress Questionnaire, Cancer Version (RSQ-CV); the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-HNC or LC); the Voice Handicap Index (VHI); and the Body Image Scale (BIS).

Cancer treatment and medical history information are gathered from patients' medical records.

• Anxiety Disorder
• Head and Neck Cancer
• Long-Term Effects Secondary to Cancer Therapy in Adults
• Lung Cancer

• Other: medical chart review
• Other: questionnaire administration
• Other: survey administration
• Procedure: management of therapy complications
• Procedure: psychosocial assessment and care

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of 1 of the following:

  • Head and neck cancer
  • Lung cancer (control group)
• Must have received treatment for head and neck cancer or lung cancer within the past 5 years

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Able to speak and read English to answer surveys, interviews, and questionnaires

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics