If you have had a diagnosis of cancer, you might think that looking after your emotional distress is an optional extra when it comes to your treatment. But you’d be wrong about that.
So important is it to treat the emotional distress that accompanies such a diagnosis, that from next year cancer treatment centres in the US will be required to screen patients for depression and other emotional reactions. Such screening will be a condition for retaining accreditation from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.
The move is based on studies suggesting that coping well with stress and depression can significantly improve the outcome for cancer patients.
This is according to the Monitor of the American Psychological Association. The studies mentioned were based on people with mainly female cancers and it’s a pity no studies with men are mentioned. Nonetheless, I think it is reasonable to draw conclusions from this research.
One study, reported in the journal Cancer, as long ago as 2008, found that breast cancer patients who attended an emotional wellness group for a year had a 45 per cent reduction in the risk of breast cancer returning. The researchers then studied what happened to those in whom breast cancer later re-occurred. Here, they found that those who had taken part in the group therapy had reduced their risk of cancer death by 59 per cent.
A further study found that women with metastatic breast cancer who reduced their levels of depression, lived for 53 months on average compared to 37 months for women whose depression increased.
Patients themselves
While it’s important that the medical profession recognise all this, it is, perhaps, more important that patients themselves recognise it.
Emotional distress goes untreated when patients are reluctant to bother their medical carers with complaints about how they are feeling. That’s one problem. Another problem is patients who fear the stigma attached to depression and other such conditions can hide the fact from the medical team. The third is medical teams often fail to appreciate the extent of the emotional distress felt by the patient.
The APA Monitor quotes Northwestern University psychologist Lynne Wagner PhD, explaining it like this: “the patient assumes that the oncology team would ask if they wanted to know, but the oncology team assumes patients will share if they are struggling. It’s really a perfect storm that allows distress to go undetected and untreated.”
People involved in counselling and support group work will know that men usually form a minority, often a very small minority, of those who use such services. It seems to me that men with cancer would be doing themselves a big favour if they made attending to emotional distress, including depression, a priority in their response to the illness.
That means the medical teams involved in the treatment of cancer need to push for the establishment of emotional wellbeing services for their patients. And where these do not exist, patients need to look carefully at what they themselves can do for their mental health.
Non-governmental bodies such as ARC Cancer Support, provide emotional support services in various parts of the country. But mental health also includes keeping up contact with the people who are important to you, getting involved in activities such as sports and talking to friends if you are feeling low.
If I was diagnosed with cancer I think I would be knocked off balance sufficiently that I might forget the advice in this article. I would rely on people close to me to nudge me in the right direction. That’s a role for families and friends. Assuring the patient everything will be all right is fine but sometimes people need to be asked if everything is actually all right or if they need to talk.
As the research shows, it’s not just good to talk: it’s life-saving.
To read the report in the APA monitor, go to bit.ly/apacancer
pomorain@yahoo.com Padraig O'Morain is a counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His latest book is Mindfulness on the Go. His mindfulness newsletter is free by email.
