title: Anticipatory psychological distress in women scheduled for diagnostic and curative breast cancer surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psychological distress is a central experience for women facing diagnostic and curative breast cancer surgery.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study was designed to predict anticipatory distress in 187 women scheduled to undergo excisional breast biopsy or lumpectomy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed questionnaires assessing emotional distress and predictors of this distress (surgery type, worry about the surgical procedure, and worry about what the surgeon will find).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study found that lumpectomy patients experienced greater anticipatory distress than excisional breast biopsy patients on three of the four distress measures (all ps < 0.05) and that worry about what the surgeon might find partially mediated these effects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that although women awaiting lumpectomy are more distressed than women awaiting biopsy, both groups report substantial distress, and, consequently, psychosocial interventions are recommended for both groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA. julie.schnur@mssm.edu
authors.forename: Julie B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Schnur
authors.forename: Guy H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: Michael N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Hallquist
authors.forename: Alisan B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Goldfarb
authors.forename: Jeffrey H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Silverstein
authors.forename: Christina R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Weltz
authors.forename: Alexis V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Kowalski
authors.forename: Dana H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Bovbjerg
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology*; D001706:Biopsy / Q000523:psychology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology