NCCC Online - NCCC National Cervical Cancer Coalition

Posted On : Tue, Apr 10 , 2007

Analysis: Cancer spouses have mental ills

Analysis: Cancer spouses have mental ills
By ED SUSMAN
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 6 -- Researchers said Friday that the partners of cancer survivors take a mental beating while their loved one fights the disease, and often, those survivors require psychological treatment.

The odds of a partner of a person living with cancer having clinical depression is 3.5 times greater than a similar person in a family unaffected by cancer.

"Spouses and partners experience similar emotional and greater social long-term costs of cancer than survivors," said Michelle Bishop, research assistant professor of hematology/oncology at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

In a report to be published Saturday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a publication of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Bishop said she interviewed 177 couples -- a survivor of stem cell transplantation and that person's spouse or partner -- and 133 acquaintances of the couple who acted as controls. The participants had lived continuously with their partners as long as 19 years since the original procedure.

About 61 percent of the patients had survived leukemia, 21 percent had survived lymphoma and 18 percent were breast cancer survivors, all of whom had undergone stem-cell transplantation as part of the treatment regimen.

Bishop reported that partners who suffered depression were significantly less likely to be treated than the patients, to receive social support or to enjoy spiritual well-being, and more likely to experience loneliness than both the patients and controls.

Bishop said she undertook the study after noting that little is known about the long-term effects of cancer and stem-cell transplantation on spouses or partners.

"Spouses or partners of cancer patients must survive the challenges of cancer alongside the cancer patient survivor," she said. "Partners experience anxiety, distress, and depression at levels equal to or higher than their ill spouses in response to the cancer experience.

"Cancer survivors are increasingly dependent on their partners for physical and emotional care because patients are discharged home quicker and sicker. Partners play a pivotal role in providing support to the cancer survivor, which is critical for successful coping and adjustment and even survival."

"It is important that oncologists realize that they are treating more than just the patient with cancer," said Dr. Peter Kozuch, assistant professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Bronx.

"Oncologists should be aware that often the spouse or partner of the patient -- upon whom so much of cancer care is dependent -- may need help, too. The treating doctor should be alert to signs in the patient's family of depression."

Kozuch, also attending physician at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan and an ASCO member, told United Press International that he suggests patients and families refer to the People Living with Cancer Web site (www.plwc.org) for information on coping with cancer treatment and with the emotional and psychological adjustments that are required.

"It is pretty obvious from my own clinical practice and from the findings in this very important paper that emotional and psychological problems are as big a weight on friends and families as it is on the patients -- sometimes even greater an impact than to the patient," he said.

"This is the first study to examine the long-term impact of cancer and treatment on the quality of life of partners of stem-cell transplant recipients," said Bishop. "It is the first to include a comparison group of participants unaffected by stem cell transplantation, and the first to examine spiritual well-being in long-term partners."

She said that the results indicate that the stem-cell transplantation experience can have long-standing impacts on quality of life and patient depression.