Guidelines For Management of Diverticular Disease of Colon
Recognizing Factors Contributing to PTSD May Improve Clinical Care in Patients with Breast Cancer
An article published in Cancer discussed the risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with breast cancer, as well as the role of inflammation and endocrine function.
“Although treating a patient’s breast cancer to give them the best odds of survival is critical, reducing potentially harmful effects on mental health also should be considered when possible so as to give the patient the best QOL both during and after cancer. In addition to improving QOL, to our knowledge the impact of PTSD symptoms on appropriate follow-up for cancer recurrence surveillance is not yet known and warrants further investigation.
In a meta-analysis of 38 studies evaluating breast cancer diagnoses and treatment, it was determined that 10% of women develop PTSD after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Moreover, a cancer diagnosis increases the lifetime risk of PTSD by a factor of 1.66 compared with those who have never been diagnosed with cancer. Importantly though, several environmental and biological risk factors for PTSD have been identified among this patient population.