The role of cognitive bias in relation to persistent distress among women diagnosed with breast cancer

Abstract

Women with persistent distress may adopt avoidance strategies to cope with breast cancer. Moreover, women reporting persistent anxiety may have a tendency to negatively interpret ambiguous information, leading to illness preoccupation. These findings offer critical insight for clinicians to develop tailored interventions to help women with persistent psychological distress.

Attachment styles, self‐compassion, and psychological adjustment in long‐term breast cancer survivors

“…Higher scores indicate a more negative impact of cancer (possible range 1 to 5; α = .94). (b) Another measure of psychological adjustment was the reliable and valid 7‐item Stress scale of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale 21 (DASS21) measuring chronic non‐specific arousal reflecting difficulty relaxing and being easily upset/irritable and impatient, which are appropriate indicators for long‐term cancer survivors for whom the initial phase of acute psychological distress has largely subsided . The extent to which items applied over the past week was rated on a 4‐point Likert‐type scale (0 “Did not apply to me at all” to 3 “Applied to me very much, or most of the time”), with a summed total score (range 0 to 21; α = .84), with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity.…”

“…With a 90% 5‐year survival rate, there are estimated to be more than 200 000 women who are long‐term breast cancer survivors (5 years or more post‐diagnosis) in Australia alone . Although many long‐term breast cancer survivors are well‐adjusted, it is common for physical and psychological issues to remain . Despite being cancer free, women may experience negative psychological impacts such as body image concerns, worry, and stress .…”

Psychological distress during the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID‐19) pandemic among cancer survivors and healthy controls

“…To test if attentional bias assessed by an experimental paradigm was associated with distress levels during the pandemic, we recontacted the participants from two previous studies of attentional bias among Hong Kong Chinese cancer patients and matched healthy women 3,4 : a cross-sectional study that had recruited 140 women with breast cancer 3 and 150 healthy women (unpublished), and a longitudinal study that had followed 270 patients with breast or colorectal cancer for 12 months, which assessed attentional bias at baseline. 4 Two modified dot-probe tasks involving visually presented word stimuli were employed to assess attentional bias.…”

“…4 Two modified dot-probe tasks involving visually presented word stimuli were employed to assess attentional bias. 3,4 The present study recruited participants from the original studies who had completed the dot-probe tasks and agreed to be re- Reaction times in the dot-probe tasks were extracted from the previous datasets. 3,4 A positive bias score represents a tendency to attend towards target stimuli (vigilance); whereas a negative bias score represents a tendency to direct attention away from target stimuli (avoidance).…”

“…3,4 The present study recruited participants from the original studies who had completed the dot-probe tasks and agreed to be re- Reaction times in the dot-probe tasks were extracted from the previous datasets. 3,4 A positive bias score represents a tendency to attend towards target stimuli (vigilance); whereas a negative bias score represents a tendency to direct attention away from target stimuli (avoidance). 8 The parameters of dot-probe tasks are described in details in the original studies.…”