Faith, Purpose in Life and Place in Life: A Comparative Study of Hungarian Breast Cancer Patients and Healthy Women

Abstract

In this study the spiritual attitudes (faith, purpose in life and place in life) of 28 Hungarian breast cancer patients and 28 healthy women were compared. The qualitative analysis of the structured interviews indicates that while healthy women have a general framework of belief, not playing an important role in everyday life, breast cancer patients perceive religion as an active aid affecting everyday life. No signifi cant differences were found between the groups concerning purpose in life, place in life, perceived control and sharing thoughts about spirituality with others. The fi ndings of this study contribute to a better understanding of breast cancer patients' psycho-social needs.Keywords: spirituality  faith  purpose in life  meaning of life  breast cancer, structured interview

Posttraumatic growth of childhood and adult cancer survivors

“…and 39447-/2013/EKU (465/2013. ), supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund -OTKA K109187, principal investigator Prof.Éva Bányai), which aimed to analyze the beneficial effect of adjuvant hypnosis administered during chemotherapy on medium and high-risk breast cancer patients in terms of disease-free survival, cell-mediated immunity, nausea and vomiting, quality of life, psychological immune competence as a coping resource, and posttraumatic growth.The multistage psycho-oncological research project started with a qualitative pilot investigation exploring psychosocial characteristics of high-risk Hungarian breast cancer patients, and a matched healthy control to establish a basis for further research(Mersdorf, Vargay, Horváth, & Bányai, 2013, 2014a. In the next phase the preparing of the protocol for the study and for the text of hypnotic suggestions and a selection of classical music took place.…”