title: Adjustment of gynecological and breast cancer patients to the cancer diagnosis: comparisons with males and females having other cancer sites.
abstract: Newly diagnosed cancer patients (N = 133) were studied to determine gender-based differences in initial adjustment and whether, within the female population, women with gynecological or breast cancer adjust differently. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Rand Health Insurance Study-General Well-Being Schedule (HIS-GWB) were used to measure anxiety, depression, hostility, somatization, and general psychological distress or psychological well-being. There were no gender differences on any of the measures when men were compared with women. However, when gynecological/breast cancer patients were analyzed separately from women with other forms of cancer, they were significantly less depressed, anxious, and hostile; they had less somatization, less psychological distress, and greater psychological well-being. These findings may be related to the perception of their illness as being less serious than that of other females with cancer.
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Sneed
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Edlund
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Dias
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires