The relationship of perfectionism with psychological symptoms in cancer patients and the contributing role of hyperarousability and coping

Abstract

If these results are replicated by future longitudinal studies, they would suggest that perfectionist cancer patients are at a higher risk of experiencing psychological symptoms, partly through their hyperarousability and the coping strategies they use.

Psychological symptoms and subsequent healthy lifestyle after a colorectal cancer diagnosis.

“…It is also possible that survivors replace maladaptive strategies elicited by the cancer diagnosis (e.g., avoidance, rumination, disengagement) with more adaptive strategies over time, particularly after reaching a remission stage (e.g., problem-solving, reappraisal, use of social support). In fact, while maladaptive strategies are associated with higher levels of psychological symptoms among individuals with cancer, adaptive strategies are related to healthier behaviors in this population (Dempster, Howell, & McCorry, 2015; Park & Gaffey, 2007; Trudel-Fitzgerald et al, 2017). Alternatively, other authors have noted that higher baseline depression scores were related to greater exercise levels among women with breast cancer over a 12-month follow-up period; they explained this unexpected finding by speculating that women with a cancer diagnosis may develop an increased awareness of the beneficial impact of exercise on mood (Pinto, Trunzo, Reiss, & Shiu, 2002).…”

Reflections on Three Decades of Research on Multidimensional Perfectionism: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Further Advances in the Assessment of Perfectionism

“…For instance, we have witnessed the publication of impressive new edited books (e.g., Sirois & Molnar, 2016; Stoeber, 2018) as well as timely conceptual advances, such as the superb analysis by Gaudreau (2019) that makes the vital distinction between striving for perfection and striving for excellence (i.e., excellencism). Other work documents the role of perfectionism as a detriment to coping with serious physical challenges such as cancer (Trudel-Fitzgerald et al, 2017) and cardiac illness (Shanmugasegaram et al, 2014).…”

No perfect sleep! A systematic review of the link between multidimensional perfectionism and sleep disturbance

“…The median (range) publication year was 2017 (1994–2021), which attests to the timeliness of our systematic review. Of the included studies, 14 were conducted in Europe (Akram et al, 2015; Akram et al, 2017; Akram et al, 2020; Andersson et al, 2005; Araújo et al, 2017; Brand et al, 2015; Faber & Schlarb, 2018; Flaxman et al, 2018; Jansson‐Fröjmark & Linton, 2007; Johann et al, 2017; Lombardo et al, 2013; Lundh et al, 1994; Maia et al, 2011; Schmidt et al, 2018), five in North America (Molnar et al, 2020; Ogus, 2006; Raft, 2012; Trudel‐Fitzgerald et al, 2017; Vincent & Walker, 2000), three in Asia (Lin et al, 2019; Palo & Das, 2021; Xie et al, 2020), one in Australia (Richardson & Gradisar, 2020), and one across various countries (Leguizamo et al, 2021). The median (range) sample size per study was 613 (35–2,286).…”

“…Regarding sleep disturbance measures, seven studies used the PSQI (Araújo et al, 2017;Faber & Schlarb, 2018;Johann et al, 2017;Lin et al, 2019;Lombardo et al, 2013;Molnar et al, 2020;Xie et al, 2020), seven studies used the ISI (Akram et al, 2015(Akram et al, , 2020Andersson et al, 2005;Brand et al, 2015;Richardson & Gradisar, 2020;Schmidt et al, 2018;Trudel-Fitzgerald et al, 2017), eight studies used self-developed scales (Akram et al, 2017;Brand et al, 2015;Leguizamo et al, 2021;Lundh et al, 1994;Maia et al, 2011;Ogus, 2006;Palo & Das, 2021;Raft, 2012)…”

“…Based on the theoretical links between perfectionism and sleep disturbance, various empirical studies have investigated the associations between the two constructs. This line of research has yielded strongly heterogeneous results, including positive (e.g., Schmidt et al, 2018; Xie et al, 2020), non‐significant (e.g., Lin et al, 2019; Trudel‐Fitzgerald et al, 2017), and, seldom, negative (e.g., Molnar et al, 2020) relations between perfectionism measures and sleep disturbance. The wealth of perfectionism subscales may have contributed to the current confusion about the perfectionism–sleep link.…”