Distress in hospitalized cancer patients: Associations with personality traits, clinical and psychosocial characteristics

Abstract

Objective To improve allocation of psychosocial care and to provide patient‐oriented support offers, identification of determinants of elevated distress is needed. So far, there is a lack of evidence investigating the interplay between individual disposition and current clinical and psychosocial determinants of distress in the inpatient setting. Methods In this cross‐sectional study, we investigated 879 inpatients with different cancer sites treated in a German Comprehensive Cancer Center. Assessment of determinants of elevated distress included sociodemographic, clinical and psychosocial characteristics as well as dimensions of personality. Multiple linear regression was applied to identify determinants of psychosocial distress. Results Mean age of the patients was M = 61.9 (SD = 11.8), 48.1% were women. In the multiple linear regression model younger age (β = −0.061, p = 0.033), higher neuroticism (β = 0.178, p = <0.001), having metastases (β = 0.091, p = 0.002), being in a worse physical condition (β = 0.380, p = <0.001), depressive symptoms (β = 0.270, p = <0.001), not feeling well informed about psychological support (β = 0.054, p = 0.046) and previous uptake of psychological treatment (β = 0.067, p = 0.020) showed significant associations with higher psychosocial distress. The adjusted R2 of the overall model was 0.464. Conclusion Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and dispositional vulnerability, that is neuroticism, current clinical and psychosocial characteristics were still associated with hospitalized patients' psychosocial distress. Psycho‐oncologists should address both, the more transient emotional responses, such as depressive symptoms, as well as more enduring patient characteristics, like neuroticism.

Stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with distress, depressive, and anxiety symptoms in cancer out-patients

“…The association between physical and psychological symptoms has been reported previously and is well-established. For example, a study among cancer in-patients showed that a worse physical condition is associated with higher distress (Pichler et al, 2022b). Another study by Leonhart et al (2017) revealed that higher somatic symptom severity is associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety as well as threatening and negative illness perceptions.…”

Emotional Distress in Portuguese Cancer Patients: The Use of the Emotion Thermometers (ET) Screening Tool

“…Concerning clinical variables, greater distress has been associated with higher severity and more advanced stages of the disease in some studies [12,34,[40][41][42][43][44][45], but no relationship between such variables has been found in other investigations [37,46]. Patients with no evidence of disease were less likely to report high distress compared to patients with newly diagnosed cancer or in active treatment, in the study of Liu and colleagues [47].…”

“…Namely, patients diagnosed with digestive system malignancies, breast and genitourinary cancers, hematologic, lung and head and neck malignancies, as well as patients receiving chemo or radiotherapy, were found to have higher rates of clinical distress [12,48,49]. Again, these results were not consistently found, and the same occurs with time since diagnosis, which has not always been correlated with distress or psychological adjustment [37,45,50,51]. Methodological issues such as different sample sizes, tumour location, cancer stages, measures used to assess distress and different procedures may explain these inconsistencies.…”

Differences in the disclosure of a cancer diagnosis by healthcare professionals and the repercussions on patients’ emotions and health

“…Yet the moment when the patient is given the diagnosis and told about the treatment they are going to receive constitutes a di cult process for the individual concerned and triggers a whole series of psychological consequences. Cancer patients are more likely than the general population to suffer from mental health issues, the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, the risk of suicide, vulnerability, sleep and eating disorders, di culties in concentrating, and a temporal hiatus in their ability to lead their everyday lives [3][4][5][6] . These circumstances mean that the treatment of this disease needs to be biopsychosocial.…”