Prevalence and impact of the post traumatic stress disorder on the quality of life of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer / Prevalência e impacto do transtorno do estresse pós-traumático na qualidade de vida de mulheres recém diagnosticadas com câncer de mama

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is a traumatic experience which may trigger Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD. To date, few studies have assessed the prevalence and impact of PTSD on the quality of life in women with breast cancer prior to commencement of treatment. The present study aimed to estimate the prevalence and impact of Acute PTSD symptoms on the quality of life in women recently diagnosed with breast cancer, while investigating the socio-demographic and clinical variables associated to PTSD. A transversal, cross-sectional type study was conducted at a Reference Center for Womens Health Byington Pérola Hospital. The PTSD symptoms were assessed using the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist - Civilian Version, the Anxiety and Depression symptoms were evaluated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, while Quality of Life was evaluated by the SF-36 questionnaire. The socio-demographic and clinical variables of the women with PTSD, Subsyndromal PTSD, and without PTSD were compared. Co-variance analysis was performed to assess the impact of the symptoms of PTSD on quality of life, independently from the potential effects of socio-demographic and clinical variables or psychiatric comorbidities, followed by Tukeys post-hoc comparison. We found a high prevalence of clinically significant post-traumatic stress symptoms. A total of 81% of women presented at least one symptom, 17.9% were diagnosed with PTSD, and 24.5% with subsyndromal PTSD. The sociodemographic characteristics and clinical staging of cancer were not associated with PTSD. Prior history of treatment and consultations for psychiatric problems presented a tendency toward association (p<0.056), while scores on the anxiety and depression scales were significantly associated with PTSD (p<0.001). We identified high comorbidity among PTSD, Anxiety and Depression. Patients with PTSD had a six-fold higher prevalence of Anxiety (Prevalence Ratio PR = 6.56), and a fourteen-fold higher rate of Depression (PR = 14.41) compared to patients without PTSD. Scores on domains of the quality of life scale were significantly lower in women with PTSD and subsyndromal PTSD. After controlling for influence of socio-demographic variables, cancer staging and psychiatric history, scores across all domains of the quality of life scale remained significantly lower in PTSD and subsyndromal PTSD groups. In the final step of the co-variance analysis, when anxiety and depression symptoms were included, the scores on the Functional Capacity and Social Aspect domains remained significantly lower in PTSD and subsyndromal PTSD groups than in the group without PTSD (p <0.05). PTSD symptoms were prevalent and had a negative impact on the quality of life of women recently diagnosed with breast cancer, suggesting that the assessment of these symptoms during this stage of the disease is important to enable early intervention.

ASSUNTO(S)

breast cancer transtorno do estresse pós-traumático neoplasias da mama comorbidades ptsd qualidade de vida comorbidity quality of life

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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