CANCER PATIENTS' DESIRE FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT

At the Cancer Support Community-Benjamin Center far more women seek support than men.  Below is an interesting study from 2010 in the journal Psychooncology confirming the tendency of women to 'desire' support more than men.  What do you think are the reasons?  How does our society cultivate this desire in women and not in men?  And more importantly, what has the effect been on us as a culture?

 

Psychooncology. 2010 Feb;19(2):141-9. doi: 10.1002/pon.1568.

 

Cancer patients' desire for psychological support: prevalence and implications for screening patients' psychological needs.

 

Merckaert I, Libert Y, Messin S, Milani M, Slachmuylder JL, Razavi D.

 

Source

Université Libre de Bruxelles, Faculté des Sciences Psychologiques et de l'Education, B-1050Brussels, Belgium.

 

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

To investigate cancer patients' desire for psychological support and to identify patients' sociodemographic, disease-related and psychological factors associated with this desire.

 

METHODS:

The study is part of a multicenter, cross-sectional study assessing cancer patients' needs and desire for psychological support. Patients completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Ways of Coping Checklist, the Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System and reported their desire for psychological support.

 

RESULTS:

Among the 381 included patients, women (26%) desired psychological support significantly more often than men (11%) (p<0 .001="" a="" and="" as="" associated="" being="" contextual="" coping="" desire="" difficulties="" distress="" diversely="" encountered="" factors="" for="" having="" men="" modalities="" neither="" nor="" o:p="" or="1.36;" other="" p="0.003" patients="" psychological="" s="" such="" support-seeking="" support.="" support="" their="" treatment="" was="" were="" with="" women="" younger="">

 

CONCLUSIONS:

One female cancer patient out of four and one male cancer patient out of ten desire psychological support. Results emphasize the need to screen not only for cancer patients' distress but also for their desire for psychological support. This will allow implementing psychological interventions according to patients' needs and desire.

 

PMID:19382112[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

To see this abstract in the original, go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19382112