Cancer Patients and their Spouses: Gender and its Effect on Psychological and Social Adjustment

Abstract

The aim of this research was to examine the effects of gender on the social adjustment and psychological distress experienced by cancer patients and their spouses. A total of 87 patients and spouses participated in the study, with the patients undergoing active medical treatment (chemotherapy, radiation or both) and three months post-diagnosis. Three questionnaires were used to collect data: a personal information one; the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), in which stress was examined; and the PAIS-SR, in which psychosocial adjustment to physical illness was examined. Both cancer patients and their spouses reported the same level of psychological distress and difficulties in social adjustment in most areas studied. Patients reported more difficulties in relationships with extended family and in sexual relations than their spouses did. In the area of social environment, spouses reported higher levels of difficulties than patients. Both men and women reported difficulties with social adjustment in most areas studied. Women reported more difficulties with social environment. As for psychological stress, generally men as patients and as spouses reported higher levels of anxiety. As patients, men reported higher levels of paranoia.

Quality of life and stress response symptoms in long-term and recent spouses of testicular cancer survivors

“…The percentage of spouses that report problems at a clinically increased level varies between 18% and 30% [5,[8][9][10]. Other studies have shown that when a cancer patient reports a high level of distress, his or her spouse is also found to have a high level of distress [3,11,12]. Similarly, when the patient has psycho-logical adjustment problems, the same is true for the spouse [10,12,13].…”

Lymphoma survival patterns by WHO subtype in the United States, 1973–2003

“…We checked the distribution of clinical features among males and females, and found that more males were diagnosed at stages III and IV (48.8% in males vs. 42.6% in females), with B-symptoms (46.7% in males vs. 39.5% in females) and died from HIV/AIDS (2.4% in males vs. 0.1% in females), which may partially explain the gender disparity. In addition, this gender disparity may also suggest different genetic, hormonal, and metabolic influences on treatment response [20][21][22], or different stress that patients bear and release [23]. Another possible explanation is that some etiological risk factors more frequently observed among males may also have a negative effect on their prognosis.…”

Impacto do câncer parental no desenvolvimento psicológico dos filhos: uma revisão da literatura

“…Para além disso, o stress emocional pode continuar muito tempo após o tratamento do câncer ter terminado (Harden 2005;Northouse, Mood, Templin, Mellon, & George, 2000;Pitceathly & Maguire, 2003). O sofrimento psicossocial pode ser explicado pelo facto do diagnóstico de câncer muitas vezes gerar uma crise nos cônjuges cuidadores (Harden, 2005;Peleg-Oren & Sherer, 2001) por aumentar a necessidade de lidar com o isolamento social, as despesas e as novas responsabilidades interpostas pelo diagnóstico de câncer, e simultaneamente, prestar apoio emocional à família, sem serem capazes de exprimir as suas próprias angústias.…”