A morbilidade psicológica e o coping em mulheres com cancro de mama mastectomizadas

Abstract

The breast cancer diagnosis involves more intensive treatments of various kinds, including mastectomy. This surgery involves a radical change in women's lives, not only physical but also psychological level, being the cause of the existence of levels of anxiety and depression in women with mastectomies. The investigation of this issue becomes relevant due to the existence, increasingly, cases of breast cancer and mastectomy. This study aimed to assess the existence of psychological morbidity in women with breast cancer who underwent mastectomy. Similarly, we intend to verify variations between psychological morbidity, socio-demographic and clinical variables, including the type of mastectomy and the treatment type. Following this, it is important to realize the role of coping strategies, evaluating this way, what coping strategies used by women and its possible relationship to the existence of psychological morbidity. The sample was comprised of 63 women with mastectomies that have follow-up consults in the senology service in a Central Hospital. The instruments that were used are: a sociodemographic questionnaire to characterize the sample, a clinical questionnaire to evaluate the desease’ variables, the Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (Zigmond e Snaith, 1983) to assess the psychological morbidity and the Brief- COPE (Carver , 1989) to assess coping strategies used. It was found that in the scale of the HADS, anxiety had higher values, particularly in the group of older women. Coping strategies used by women are more religion (practiced mainly by older women) and acceptance over the use of substances. There were statistically significant positive and negative associations between variables of anxiety and depression and variables of Brief-Cope. These results will be discussed in the context of the review of the scientific literature in the first part of this study

Date of Award	2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Cláudia Lopes Fernandes (Supervisor)