Posttraumatic growth in breast cancer survivors: Are depressive symptoms really negative predictors?

Abstract

Objective: Breast cancer (BC) diagnosis is a potentially traumatic event, the related challenges of which can trigger positive or negative reactions. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is defined as a positive psychological change experienced as a result of the struggle. The present study aimed to shed light on the relationship between the evolution of depressive symptoms over time and PTG in a group of BC survivors. Method: Depressive symptoms at the time of diagnosis (T0) and two years later (T1) were evaluated to investigate their potential impact on the level of PTG at T1. A total of 147 BC patients were recruited and divided into four groups according to the changes in depressive symptoms they experienced over time (patients who were 'never depressed', 'no longer depressed', 'still depressed', and 'depressed now'). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run to compare the levels of PTG for the four groups. Results: One-way ANOVA showed that PTG score was significantly different among groups with different levels of depressive symptoms (p = .008). Post hoc comparisons indicated that the PTG score was statistically significantly higher in the 'no longer depressed' group compared to the 'still depressed' and 'depressed now' groups. Conclusions: The current results suggest that high levels of depressive symptoms, displayed at the time of cancer diagnosis, can be considered catalysts for PTG at follow-up, on condition that women experience elevated depressive symptoms only in the first period of the disease.

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