Clusters of Psychological Symptoms in Breast Cancer: Is There a Common Psychological Mechanism?

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Breast cancer patients tend to experience numerous concurrent psychological symptoms that form clusters. It has been proposed that a common psychological mechanism may underlie the membership of symptoms in a given cluster, but this hypothesis has never been investigated. Maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) is one possible common mechanism.

OBJECTIVE:

This study examined cross-sectional and prospective relationships between subjective (experiential avoidance, expressive suppression, and cognitive reappraisal) and objective (high-frequency heart rate variability) measures of ER and clusters of psychological symptoms among women receiving radiation therapy for breast cancer.

METHOD:

A total of 81 women completed a battery of self-report scales before (T1) and after (T2) radiotherapy, including measures of anxiety, depression, fear of cancer recurrence, insomnia, fatigue, pain, and cognitive impairments. Resting high-frequency heart rate variability was measured at T1.

RESULTS:

Latent profile analyses identified between 2 and 3 clusters of patients with similar levels of symptoms at T1 and T2 and with a similar profile of symptom changes between T1 and T2. Discriminant analyses showed that higher levels of avoidance and suppression predicted membership in symptom clusters that included more severe symptoms cross-sectionally at T1 and at T2 (both P values < .0001). However, ER at T1 did not significantly predict membership in clusters of symptom changes between T1 and T2 (P = .15).

CONCLUSION:

Maladaptive ER strategies, more particularly suppression and avoidance, are a possible psychological mechanism underlying clusters of cancer-related psychological symptoms.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:

Psychological interventions targeting maladaptive ER strategies have the potential to treat several psychological symptoms simultaneously.

• Authors: Anne-Josée Guimond, Hans Ivers, Josée Savard
• Journal: Cancer nursing (Cancer Nurs) 2020 Sep/Oct Vol. 43 Issue 5 Pg. 343-353 ISSN: 1538-9804 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 30950932 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Aged
• Anxiety (etiology, psychology)
• Breast Neoplasms (complications, psychology, radiotherapy)
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Depression (etiology, psychology)
• Fatigue (etiology, psychology)
• Female
• Humans
• Middle Aged
• Pain (etiology)
• Prospective Studies
• Quebec
• Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders (etiology, psychology)
• Young Adult