title: The factors contributing to death anxiety in cancer patients.
abstract: Suffering comes in many ways for patients confronting cancer. One of these is an unspecifiable fear about death, which is an existential issue. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between death anxiety and its correlates in cancer patients. Seventy cancer patients were assessed using SCID-I, Templer's Death Anxiety Scale, the Hospital Anxiety (A) and Depression (D) Scale, the Distress Thermometer, the Visual Analogue Scale for pain (VAS), the Global Assessment of Functioning, and Glock and Stark's Dimensions of Religious Commitment scales, and these assessments were compared between cancer patients with and without death anxiety. Multiple regression analysis was conducted after correlation analysis between death anxiety and sociodemographic and clinical variables. Axis I psychiatric diagnosis, pain scores, and negative believes about what will happen after death were found to be higher in patients having death anxiety than patients not having death anxiety. Also life expectancy was perceived as shortened in patients with death anxiety. Death anxiety was associated with anxiety, depressive symptoms, and beliefs about what will happen after death. In conclusion, death anxiety could not be regarded as a natural consequence of having cancer; it is associated with the unresolved psychological and physical distress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Samsun Mental Health and Psychiatric Disorders Training and Research Hospital, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gokcen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gonen
authors.forename: Semra Ulusoy
authors.initials: SU
authors.lastname: Kaymak
authors.forename: Eylem Sahin
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Cankurtaran
authors.forename: Ersin Hatice
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Karslioglu
authors.forename: Elvan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ozalp
authors.forename: Haldun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Soygur
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012067:Religion; D012307:Risk Factors