Psychosocial Effects of Treatments for Breast Cancer: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study

Hughson, Andrew Vincent Mark (1989) Psychosocial Effects of Treatments for Breast Cancer: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study. MD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

In this thesis the psychosocial morbidity of treatment for breast cancer -in particular, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy after mastectomy - is examined. However, factors other than postoperative treatment which contribute to morbidity are considered, and the opportunity is taken to compare different ways of measuring psychosocial morbidity. A relationship between psychosocial morbidity and breast cancer has long been recognised, but only recently has it been the subject of reliable, systematic investigation. Reliable studies conducted shortly before work for this thesis began showed that prior to breast biopsy and following mastectomy, a substantial minority of patients---perhaps as many as a quarter---experienced psychological morbidity of clinical degree. However, it was not clear how much of the pre-operative morbidity was specific to impending surgery for breast disease. Also, it had been suggested that post-operative radiotherapy increased psychological morbidity after mastectomy, but there were no quantitative data to confirm this belief. Hence the precise contribution of mastectomy and radiotherapy to post-operative morbidity was uncertain. There was little information in the literature on what factors other than treatment influenced liability to morbidity. The psychosocial effects of adjuvant chemotherapy after mastectomy had not been reported. Using reliable observer and self rating scales, answers to the following main questions were sought. (1) Does psychosocial morbidity prior to breast biopsy exceed that prior to routine surgery? What factors independently predict morbidity? (2) What is the extent of psychosocial morbidity in patients allocated to adjuvant chemotherapy, and how does it compare with the morbidity in patients receiving post-operative radiotherapy? (3) Does post-operative radiotherapy cause more psychosocial morbidity than no further treatment? (4) What is the extent of morbidity in a sample of patients with "early" breast cancer receiving several types of treatment, and what factors independently predict morbidity? (5) Compared with observer scales, how well do self rating scales perform in patients treated for breast cancer? (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

• Item Type: Thesis (MD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Medicine, Psychobiology
• Date of Award: 1989
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1989-77905
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 30 Jan 2020 15:48
• Last Modified: 30 Jan 2020 15:48
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/77905