Personality and fatigue in patients with benign or malignant breast disease

Abstract

Goals of work The aim of the study was to examine the role of five general personality traits in fatigue in a group of patients with breast cancer (BC) and a group with benign breast problems (BBP). Materials and methods Of the 304 participating women, 127 patients had BC and 177 BBP. A fatigue scale was completed before diagnosis and 1, 3, and 6 months after diagnosis (benign patients) or surgical treatment (BC patients). A personality questionnaire (NEO-FFI) and a depression scale (CES-D) were completed before diagnosis. Main results The BC group was less tired before diagnosis, more tired 1 month after diagnosis, and equally tired 3 and 6 months after diagnosis. In the total group, women were more tired over time when they were more neurotic, less agreeable, or more introverted. After controlling for depressive symptoms, demographics, and medical factors, baseline depressive symptoms (β=0.29, p<0.05), neuroticism (β=0.29, p<0.05), and extraversion (β=−0.25, p< 0.05) predicted fatigue 6 months later. After also including baseline fatigue, only neuroticism (β=0.22, p<0.05) and baseline fatigue (β=0.79, p<0.001) predicted fatigue.Conclusions Personality is more strongly related to fatigue than demographics, the diagnosis cancer, receiving cancer treatment, and baseline depressive symptoms and fatigue. When replicated, screening and treating women who are at risk to experience high levels of fatigue is recommended.

Determinants of fatigue 6 and 12 months after surgery in women with early-stage breast cancer: A comparison with women with benign breast problems

“…In accordance with previous studies [26], a lower score on the personality factor extraversion (i.e., higher score on introversion) also predicted fatigue in the BC group. Michielsen et al [26] provided the following two explanations for the relationship between extraversion and fatigue.…”

“…As was already found in earlier studies [22,26,29], neuroticism predicted fatigue, but only in the BBP group in the present study. Although patients in the BBP group did not receive treatment that could induce fatigue, patients in this group who scored higher on neuroticism reported more fatigue.…”

“…A score above 21 represents being tired [40], indicating that patients feel substantially fatigued and that this affects daily life. Preliminary information has shown that the reliability of the FAS in breast cancer and benign patients [26] is good. For instance, internal consistency (Cronbach's α) was .88 in the breast cancer group and .92 in the benign group.…”

“…Montgomery et al [25] also showed that trait anxiety is related to fatigue. A number of studies examined the relationship between the personality factors neuroticism and extraversion and fatigue and found inconsistent results [22,[26][27][28][29][30].…”

Personality traits and psychosocial stress: quality of life over 2 years following breast cancer diagnosis and psychological impact factors

“…Millar et al [16] found that neuroticism was a (minor) predictive factor for psychological morbidity 1 year after treatment for breast cancer. Two studies reported significant associations between neuroticism and long-term symptoms of fatigue after breast cancer surgery [36,46]. Neuroticism has also been found to be associated with a greater risk for depressive symptoms among breast cancer patients after primary surgical treatment [34].…”