Eysenck personality inventory L‐scores in patients with Hodgkin's disease and non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma

Abstract

Sixty‐three patients with Hodgkin's disease and non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma were followed up for exactly 5 years after first diagnosis. Survival analysis was carried out using the log‐rank test (univariate) and Cox's proportional hazards regression method (multivariate). Variables examined were: age at diagnosis; gender; stage; symptoms; type of disease; grade of tumour, performance status; presence or absence of hypnotherapy or relaxation training; Eysenck Personality Inventory L‐scores; and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores. At diagnosis, in keeping with previous studies, L‐scores were high. Although L‐scores can be raised for several reasons, the L‐scale may be a useful measure of the cancer‐prone (type C) personality. Moreover, as predicted, L‐scores were associated with an increased risk of death within 5 years; L‐scores emerged as an independent risk factor as did depression scores. A relaxation‐based intervention may also have enhanced survival. Replication in the lymphomas, and investigation in other cancers, should be carried out.

Personality traits and cancer survival: a Danish cohort study

“…No significant associations were found for extraversion and neuroticism. The results of the current study indicated that neuroticism was associated with cancer survival and this association was not observed in any of the previous studies, only associations between lie and extroversion and cancer survival was found (Hislop et al, 1987;Ratcliffe et al, 1995). The differences in the results found by the various studies could be a result of differences in methodological quality, or perhaps a chance finding.…”

“…No significant associations were found for extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, or lie. Ratcliffe et al (1995) followed-up 63 cases of Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for 5 years revealing 27 deaths from all causes. A positive significant, linear association was observed between lie and the risk of death from all causes (Linear trend P ¼ 0.001).…”

“…Five studies have investigated associations between personality traits and cancer survival. Two studies found statistically significant associations (Hislop et al, 1987;Ratcliffe et al, 1995) but three other studies found no association between personality traits and risk of death in cancer patients (Greer et al, 1979;Dean and Surtees, 1989;Nakaya et al, 2005). However, four studies had several limitations, including failure to control for cigarette smoking or alcohol consumption, and failing to assess personality traits before the cancer diagnosis (Greer et al, 1979;Hislop et al, 1987;Dean and Surtees, 1989;Ratcliffe et al, 1995).…”

Biobehavioral outcomes following psychological interventions for cancer patients.

“…As expected, disease stage and performance status predicted survival, but there was no differential survival between intervention groups or between intervention and control conditions. Ratcliffe, Dawson, and Walker (1995) conducted a study comparing two treatments, relaxation therapy with or without hypnosis for patients with Hodgkin's disease or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (N ϭ 63) residing in the United Kingdom. As the report is brief, several methodology details are not reported, including information on accrual, attrition, intervention descriptions, and outcome data for the psychological measures.…”

Support groups in advanced breast cancer

“…In multivariate analyses, the intervention was associated with reduced risk of death (P ϭ 0.05) but not recurrence. Although reports by Richardson et al 5 and Ratcliffe et al 6 of compliance-enhancing strategies and relaxation training in patients with hematologic malignancies suggest survival benefits of these interventions, the former 5 was not a randomized trial, and the latter 6 was not identified as a randomized trial. Furthermore, the survival effect seen in the latter study 6 was not significant at the conventional level (P ϭ 0.058).…”