Use of Alternative Medicine by Women with Early-Stage Breast Cancer

Abstract

Among women with newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer who had been treated with standard therapies, new use of alternative medicine was a marker of greater psychosocial distress and worse quality of life.

Use of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in Patients With Malignant Diseases in High-Volume Cancer Center and Future Aspects

“…Interestingly, although inadequate physician-patient communication and dissatisfaction with some aspects of conventional health care may be contribut-ing factors to desperation, only two patients admitted that desperation was the reason for CAM use. A study by Burstein et al investigating breast cancer patients showed that those patients that were more depressed and had greater fear of recurrence were more prone to using CAM 17 . In our study, divorced patients used CAM signifi cantly more often than other groups of patients.…”

An investigation of the health beliefs and motivations of complementary medicine clients

“…Additionally, the use of CM was associated with a greater number of physical symptoms and with symptoms of a greater intensity (Burstein, Gelber, Guadagnoli, & Weeks, 1999). Assessing an individual's illness profile is therefore an important part of understanding his or her motivations to use complementary medicine.…”

Acquiescence to adjunctive experimental therapies may relate to psychological distress: pilot data from a bone marrow transplant center

“…1,7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Indeed in our study, women who agreed to participate in the adjunctive studies were more Table 3 Psychological test scores between women who agreed or did not agree to adjunctive experimental therapy 5,19 emotional characteristics may be as, or more, important. These emotional characteristics included need for control of therapy, 17 psychological factors, [18][19][20] and feelings of being coerced into specific treatments.…”

“…21 Users of alternative therapy felt unhappy with the medical information and care they received, 18 had a higher incidence of somatization disorders, 19 experienced more hopelessness, 20 and were psychologically more labile with high anxiety and depression. 1 Our study has several important limitations, including the small number of patients (42 women) and the retrospective nature of the study. However, as a pilot study it suggests that decision-making, even within a medical setting, may relate to psychological distress as much as to cognitive decision-making.…”