title: The complex role of personality in cancer treatment: impact of dependency-detachment on health status, distress, and physician-patient relationship.
abstract: Personality traits have been associated with positive and negative adjustment to a cancer diagnosis. No studies have assessed trait dependency and detachment and their relationship to health, distress, and the doctor-patient relationship in patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. Fifty adults (32 women; mean [SD], 60.32 [12.74] years) undergoing radiation treatment for a variety of cancers completed measures of dependency and detachment, doctor-patient relationship, physical health, somatization, anxiety, and depression. Overdependence scores were positively and significantly correlated with patients' anxiety and negatively and significantly correlated with the physician-patient relationship. Detachment scores were positively and significantly correlated with pain, somatization, depression, and anxiety and marginally associated with lower health-related quality of life. These preliminary findings support the construct validity and clinical utility of trait dependency and detachment testing with oncology patients and suggest that detachment is associated with poorer quality of life and higher psychological distress, whereas dependency is associated with poorer doctor-patient relationships after a cancer diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI; †Institute for Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY; ‡Department of Psychology, University of Detroit Mercy; and §Department of Radiation Oncology, Detroit Medical Center, MI.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Porcerelli
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Bornstein
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Porcerelli
authors.forename: V Elayne
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Arterbery
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*