The psychological morbidity of breast cancer–related arm swelling. Psychological morbidity of lymphoedema

Abstract

Background. The psychological morbidity, functional impairment, and disturbance in psychosocial adjustment to illness was evaluated in relation to breast cancer‐related arm swelling. Methods. Fifty women with breast cancer‐related arm swelling were matched with 50 control subjects for age, duration since treatment, and type of treatment received. All study participants were free from active disease and had been treated more than 1 year ago. Results. Patients with arm swelling showed greater psychological morbidity at formal psychiatric interview, impaired adjustment to illness as evaluated by the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale, and greater impairment of physical functioning. Conclusions. Patients with arm swelling in relation to breast cancer experienced functional impairment, psychosocial maladjustment, and increased psychological morbidity. These findings have implications for management of breast cancer.

Study of Incidence of Lymphedema in Indian Patients Undergoing Axillary Dissection for Breast Cancer

“…Tobin and colleagues reported that patients with edema due to ALND had more psychosocial and adaptational problems than a comparable group of patients without edema [21]. Other authors have also reported similar problems [6].…”

Psychologic and social sequelae of secondary lymphedema

“…Seven researchers had only one contact with the patients. 23,28,[37][38][39]41,47 In some cases, this one contact for the purpose of data collection was not conducted at the same time point in the course of the condition, which limits the usefulness of the findings and makes comparison of the studies less effective.…”

“…Tobin et al 47 and Carter 48 reported greater psychiatric morbidity for anxiety and depression. Lack of adequate information about SLE and poorer illness adjustment were found to be predictors of higher anxiety and depression.…”

“…Hack et al 40 and Tobin et al 47 reported exclusion for current psychiatric diagnosis, and Maunsell et al 28 adjusted the results for history of depression. Tobin et al 47 and Carter 48 reported greater psychiatric morbidity for anxiety and depression.…”

Comparison of quality of life and arm complaints after axillary lymph node dissection vs sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer patients

“…Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in breast cancer patients still represents the routine surgical method for axillary staging. Although the axillary node status is the most important prognostic factor for recurrence and survival (Fisher et al, 1984;Carter et al, 1989) and information obtained by axillary dissection is useful for planning adjuvant treatment, it is associated with substantial morbidity (Kissin et al, 1986;Ivens et al, 1992;Keramopoulos et al, 1993;Hack et al, 1999;Kakuda et al, 1999) and psychological distress (Maunsell et al, 1993;Tobin et al, 1993;Shimozuma et al, 1999). Hack et al, showed arm/shoulder pain, weakness or numbness in 72% and impaired range of motion in 73% of breast cancer patients after ALND, whereas high levels of quality of life (QOL) were reported.…”