The homeless represent an extremely disadvantaged population that fare worse than minority groups in access to preventive services and health, and minority groups fare worse than Whites. Early detection screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) saves lives, but empirical data about CRC screening practices among homeless Blacks and Whites are limited.…

Leukemia is a significant public health and life-threatening problem for pediatric cancer patients. Family caregivers of cancer patients receive little preparation, information, or support to perform their care giving role. This study aims to assess the effect of psycho-educational training program to enhancing practice and psychosocial adaptation…

Caregiver burden and distress have been associated with informal caregivers. Research findings on the specific aspects of the caregiving role that influence burden are mixed. Factors such as amount of time per day giving care and specific characteristics about the disease progression have been linked to caregiver burden and distress. Other…

Trials testing the efficacy of psychological interventions for cancer patients had their beginnings in the 1970s. Since then, hundreds of trials have found interventions to be generally efficacious. In this article, we describe an intervention grounded in a conceptual model that includes psychological, behavioral, and biological components. It is…

Previous research suggests that caregivers and terminally ill patients face substantial difficulties discussing illness and death. Existing research, however, has focused primarily on the experience of patients. The current study compared responses as well as the relative strength of association between mortality communication, fear of death, and…

The study focuses on healthy children's responses to a sibling's cancer and its aftermath, with particular scrutiny directed toward these healthy siblings' stress factors, duress responses, and coping resources. The authors investigated role overload as these siblings' stress factor, anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms as their duress responses,…

High levels of stress experienced by primary care oncology nursing staff, and the competency impairment which results from such stress, has become a matter of much concern in health care settings. This study was conducted to identify the coping strategies employed by oncology nurses, and to relate these strategies to differential indices of stress…

This study examined associations between couple communication about cancer and psychological distress and relationship satisfaction of women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. One hundred forty-eight couples completed a videotaped discussion of a cancer-related issue and a general issue. Patients completed measures of psychological distress…

Recounts the history of cancer treatment to illustrate the long-standing tradition of a holistic approach to the investigation and treatment of cancer, discusses the growing emphasis on holistic cancer treatment and the importance of counseling in such treatment. (Author)

Anger has been shown to be an important factor in occupational maladjustment, family conflict, physical and sexual assault, criminal behavior, and substance abuse. It has also been linked with such adverse health outcomes as hypertension, heart disease, and cancer. Focusing on anger proneness, conceptualized as a relatively enduring propensity to…

Examined utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) as a longitudinal predictor of psychosocial adaptation to cancer. A post hoc discriminant analysis revealed that 75% of all patients could have been correctly classified into a high-distressed v a low-distressed cancer patient group using only the MMPI. (Author)

Analyzed demographic, cancer, physical functioning and psychological data for late-stage cancer, newly admitted nursing home patients (n=90). Concluded that, compared to survivors, those who died within a three-month period more often acknowledged their condition as terminal, anticipated greater environmental stress and adjustment problems and had…

There is a widely held perception that cancer is influenced by psychological factors, and that both the onset and progression of the disease are affected by factors such as stress, depression, social isolation and coping style. This article reviews the evidence for the mind-cancer link. Although hundreds of studies have reported on this issue,…

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine how the chronicity of stress affects psychological stress-responses, depressive symptoms, and "in vivo" immunocompetence in spouses of women with metastatic breast cancer. Methods: Participants were 34 spouses of breast cancer patients. Their wives had been living with a diagnosis of…

Purpose: Caregiver bereavement adjustment literature suggests opposite models of impact of role strain on bereavement adjustment after care-recipient death--a Complicated Grief Model and a Relief Model. This study tests these competing models for husband and adult-daughter caregivers of breast cancer hospice patients. Design and Methods: This…