title: A longitudinal study of psychological adjustment to familial genetic risk assessment for ovarian cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the psychological adjustment of women during initial genetic ovarian cancer risk assessment and at clinic follow-up, 6-12 months later.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-five subjects were assessed with the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD), Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory, and an 18-item, investigator-designed questionnaire yielding self-report on screening responses, worry about increased risk, identification of cancer-related deaths in relatives, worry about future cancer risks of daughters, alteration of future plans as a result of ovarian cancer risk, etc.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-three percent of subjects had CESD scores above the established cutoff for depression at baseline and 38% had scores above cutoff at follow-up. Sixteen percent of subjects had state scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory higher than 1 standard deviation above average (norm) at baseline, while only 6% had scores higher than 1 SD above average at follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To identify factors associated with self-reported depression at follow-up, a series of demographic and self-reported variables (e.g., presence of identified problems in family, impact of genetic risk information, concern for daughter in the future) were entered in a multiple regression analysis with the CESD follow-up score as the dependent variable. Only one predictor accounted for a significant amount of variance in depression scores. Concern for daughter's risk in the future was associated with higher depression scores at follow-up (R = 0.33, P<0.02, R(2) = 11%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Family & Community Medicine and Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. paul.ritvo@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ritvo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Irvine
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Styra
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rosen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D018570:Risk Assessment