engleski

Depression and Anxiety among Women Suffering from Breast Cancer: Role of Individual's Defense Mechanisms and Alexithymia

Depression and anxiety, as common difficulties breast cancer patients have to cope with throughout healing process, directly affect their quality of life. This study aims to investigate the relationship between severity of depression and anxiety symptoms and defense mechanisms frequently used when dealing with stressful events. Forty four patients diagnosed with breast cancer (mean age 61 years) were involved in a study. A self‐assessment questionnaire consisted of thesocio‐demographic part and four clinical scales: Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS‐20), Defense style questionnaire (DSQ‐ 40) and Short form health survey (SF36) were used for this purpose. As expected, patients with high level of depression and anxiety showed lower quality of life. Positive correlations were found between depression, anxiety and dimensions of quality of life, such as limitations due to physical and emotional difficulties, lower energy levels and increased pain. Furthermore, ANOVA has shown that patients with elevated alexithymia have more symptoms of depression and anxiety than patients who do not meet diagnostic criteria for alexithymia. The symptoms of depression and anxiety were also positively correlated with immature defense mechanisms, while correlations of anxiety and depression with mature and neurotic defense styles were not found significant. Results of this study underline the importance of individual's defense style in healing process and put a light on alexithymia as a key distinction between breast cancer patients, regarding their mental health status.

Quality of Life, breast cancer ; alexithymia ; defence mechanism

nije evidentirano