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PTSD, Cancer Patients, Mental Health Month and Channel Theme Day

by Gloria Gamat on May 14th, 2008

Mental health is important to every individual, whether you have a serious condition such as cancer or not.

Sometimes, I believe that one’s mental health is overlooked even though it too play a critical part how a patient manages to live with the disease or how survival is willed.

May is Mental Health Month and here at the Health and Wellness Channel, we focus on mental health.

Just one example why mental health is important in cancer patients:

Breast cancer patients who have a prior history of mood and anxiety disorders are at a much higher risk of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder following their diagnosis, new research suggests.

A study of 74 breast cancer patients at the Ohio State University Medical Center found that 16 percent of them (12 women) suffered from PTSD 18 months after diagnosis.

Co-author of the said study, Barbara Andersen said:

“What is unique about breast cancer patients with PTSD is that they have already had this double hit of both anxiety and mood disorders even before they got the diagnosis.

So when they are in a new situation that is very anxiety provoking – cancer diagnosis and treatment – it is not surprising that they are at risk for developing PTSD.”

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as defined by the NIMH-NIH:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened.

People with PTSD have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to. They may experience sleep problems, feel detached or numb, or be easily startled.

Suffice to say that there is a lot more to the expressions “he went a crazy since his wife was diagnosed and died of cancer” or “she wasn’t the same anymore since she was diagnosed with cancer” or something to that effect.

Yes, we all get a little “crazy” or “depressed” sometimes in the face of adverse situations, the more that one’s mental health shouldn’t be ignored.

As suggested in the above study, Barbara Andersen further said:

“I think depression is the mental health condition that needs the most attention as far as treating breast cancer patients, even more so than PTSD.

That’s the direction our research is going, and we are working to develop an intervention to treat cancer patients with depression.”

Life is never easy: with or without cancer. Thus, mental health shouldn’t be ignored by healthcare professionals, the patients and their families(and friends).

Read more from Ohio State press release.

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POSTED IN: general commentary, on breast cancer