Personality correlates of breast cancer patients

Abstract

Personality correlates of breast cancer patients S Kreitler, M M Kreitler Background: Previous studies about personality correlates of cancer patients led to inconclusive results Studies by Kreitler et al. (2002) showed that focusing on theoretically-relevant factors provides new insights into personality correlates of cancer patients. The study was done in the framework of the Cognitive Orientation (CO) theory of health behavior and wellness which enables identifying relevant factors in cancer patients. The goal was to examine whether personality tendencies grounded in the CO theory can be identified in breast cancer patients. Methods: The participants were 250 breast cancer patients and 180 matched healthy controls. They were administered the CO questionnaire of breast cancer assessing personality dispositions identified in pretests as relevant for breast cancer. Findings: Discriminant and logistic regression analyses showed that patients and controls differed significantly in most personality dispositions, including concern with controlling oneself and others, dependence on others’ evaluations, emotional blocking, perfectionism, and conflicts about self identity and giving to others. Some of these variables were related to medical features, none to demographic ones. Discussion/Conclusions: There exists a relevant set of psychological correlates of breast cancer patients that could serve as basis for psychological interventions accompanying medical treatments and needs to be examined in other cultural settings.