Psychosocial Risk Factors of Cancer Diseases: How Specific Are They?

Abstract

The paper presents the psychological correlates of colorectal cancer patients in the framework of the cognitive orientation (CO) theory. According to this cognitive-motivational approach the major factors responsible for disease are a pathogene, background factors and a physiological program implementing the disease processes. Psychological factors form a part of the background factors. They consist of specific cognitive contents forming a motivational disposition, representing four types of beliefs referring to specific contents. The cognitive contents are assessed by a CO questionnaire. Previous studies showed that the CO questionnaire differentiated significantly between colorectal cancer patients and healthy controls in two samples, as well as between both groups and Crohn patients who have potential malignancy. The present study was designed to examine the specificity of the psychological variables characterizing colorectal cancer. The CO questionnaire was administered to male colorectal cancer patients and patients with prostate cancer and male healthy controls, and to female colorectal cancer patients, patients with breast cancer and healthy female controls. In both cases the scores of the CO questionnaire differentiated between the colorectal cancer patients and the two other groups, but there were no differences between the prostate cancer patients or the breast cancer patients and the healthy controls. These findings confirm the hypothesis that the CO variables of colorectal cancer are disease specific and may be considered as psychological risk factors for colorectal cancer.

Cancer: an emergent property of disturbed resource‐rich environments? Ecology meets personalized medicine

“…What we suggest here is that any actions that reduce the level of disturbances prior to the initiation of oncogenic progression should be developed because they are expected to prevent oncogenesis. This is indirectly supported by several studies linking different lifestyles and psychological profiles to cancer risk (Kreitler et al 2013).…”

“…This is indirectly supported by several studies linking different lifestyles and psychological profiles to cancer risk (Kreitler et al. ).…”

Psychological tendencies of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

“…Therefore, according to the COH model, the psychological tendencies regarding each state of health consist of the four belief types, but in each case, the content of the beliefs is different and represents a cluster of themes that are specifically relevant to a particular disease (Kreitler, 1999 , 2019 ). This model enabled the identification of specific psychological tendencies related to stress for anorexia (Kreitler, Bachar, Canetti, Berry & Bonne, 2003 ), ischemic heart disease (Drechsler, Bruner & Kreitler, 1987 ), gynecological infections (Kreitler, Kreitler & Schwartz, 1991 ), type 2 diabetes (Kreitler, Weissler & Nurymberg, 2004 ), colon and colorectal cancer (Figer, Kreitler, Kreitler & Inbar, 2002 ; Kreitler, Kreitler & Barak, 2013 ), asthma (Roth & Kreitler, 2020 ), Crohn's and colitis in children (Badarnee, Weiss, Shouval & Kreitler, 2022 ).…”