Cancer Exacts a High Emotional Toll on Spouses

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A cancer diagnosis can take a heavy emotional toll on a patient's spouse, even years after the diagnosis, new research shows.

, anxiety, and stress-related conditions, compared with peers whose spouse did not have cancer. The risk was higher for male spouses, those with preexisting psychiatric conditions, and in the first year following a spouse's cancer diagnosis.

Over the study period, the authors reported 37,830 cases of first-onset psychiatric disorders among spouses of patients with cancer, for an incidence rate of 6.8 per 1000 person-years, compared with 153,607 cases among spouses of cancer-free individuals . During the entire follow-up period, the risk of first-onset psychiatric disorders increased by 14% overall, with similar rates observed for diagnoses of substance abuse, depression, and stress-related disorders.

In a secondary analysis of spouses with preexisting psychiatry illness, the risk of first-onset or recurrent psychiatric disorders increased by 23%. "Stress responses trigger avoidance of end-of-life discussions, advance care planning, and signing of Do Not Resuscitate orders, which result in family members witnessing the horrors of life-prolonging care that, itself, may prove psychologically traumatizing," Prigerson said.

 

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