title: Posttraumatic growth and psychological distress in Chinese  early-stage breast cancer survivors: a longitudinal study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the dynamic changes in posttraumatic growth (PTG) and psychological distress in hospitalized early-stage breast cancer (BC) survivors over a 6-month period.
  
  
  METHODS
  A longitudinal study design was adopted. The PTG inventory (PTGI) and distress management screening measure were used 3 months after diagnosis, then again at 6 and 9 months after diagnosis. For baseline data, 155 BC patients who were receiving chemotherapy were selected from four first-class tertiary hospitals in Beijing from April 2010 to March 2011 using a purposive sampling method. Of these, 120 BC patients completed the follow-up investigation. A repeated measures analysis of variance, followed by least significant difference post-hoc analysis, was used to compare PTG and psychological distress.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total score of the PTGI was 62.72 ± 14.66 in BC survivors at 3 months after diagnosis.There was a weak negative relationship between PTG and psychological distress (r = –0.282, p<0.001).PTG increased and psychological distress decreased from 3 to 9 months after diagnosis. The PTGI scores were 63.24 ± 14.21, 68.26 ± 15.29, and 70.29 ± 16.07 at 3, 6, and 9 months after diagnosis, respectively, with distress thermometer scores of 3.62 ± 1.98, 2.59 ± 2.00, and 2.51 ± 1.00, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  At 3 months after diagnosis, BC survivors develop PTG at a low level while they are receiving chemotherapy. PTG showed a weak negative association with psychological distress. The level of PTG shows an increasing tendency, whereas the degree of psychological distress exhibits a downward trend in the 9 months after diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jun-E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hui-Ying
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Mu-Lan
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ya-Li
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Pi-Lin
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D029181:Spirituality; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D013997:Time Factors