Psychology Breast Cancer

Question: Discuss about thePsychology forBreast Cancer. Answer: Introduction The paper deals with the case study of Mary who is diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. In this stage breast cancer, this has not spread beyond the axillary lymph nodes (Lyman et al., 2014). In refference to the case study, the paper presents the emotional, cognitive, and behavioural responses that Mary is likely to experience in relation to this diagnosis. In relation to the illness, the potential risks and the protective factors relevant to Marys situation is also discussed. Discussion The emotional responses of Mary in relation to distress include fear of severe symptoms such as pain, trouble sleeping, and fatigue. She is under severe shock about the future consequences. Further, she is concerned about her body image disruption, unable to breastfeed her babies, sexual dysfunction. She is worried with intrusive thoughts about the disease. Since, Mary has no support from her husband who is deployed for over 12 months, she is highly vulnerable to chronic depression (Park Rosenstein, 2015). She communicates with her parents on a regular basis. She has not seen them physically after the birth of her twin boys. Due to lack of emotional and moral support from her loved ones, she has persistent anxiety. This is the risk factor for worsening of her condition (Fernandes-Taylor et al., 2014). Due to lack of marital communication, Mary is overwhelmed with concerns regarding the inability to control adverse situation. In addition, Mary has poor social connectedness as lives i n housing provided through the defence force for the families of service men. She has no family living nearby. There is a risk of increasing uncertainty about the future. Further, emotional concerns include the risk of financial burden and other socio-economic factors (Berman et al., 2014). The common behavioural concerns of Mary in response to the diagnosis are disturbances in sleep, energy, mood, and cognition. As it is seen that Mary has several psychosocial concerns, there is a risk that she may lack positive behavioural response towards her illness (Manne et al., 2014). Due to lack of care and compassion in her life, Mary is at risk of not being able to cope up with her disease symptoms. She is at risk of overtly critical behaviour. According to Berman et al., (2014) coping strategies that are based on the realistic expectation are found to be effective in adapting to the illness over time. However, for Mary there is a risk of poor coping behaviour also known as behavioural disengagement due to lack of realistic expectations (Stanton Bower, 2015). Her behaviour towards screening, adherence to medication and treatment of the cancer may be affected if the psychosocial needs are unmet. It in turn increases the risk of having poor quality of life and mental well-being . Considering the case study of Mary, it can be interpreted that she may have maladaptive cognitive processing. Cognitive processing refers to realising and accepting the illness as a reason to reconsider the priorities. The rationale for this interpretation is the unsupportive behaviour of her partner. Her husband fails to be present at time of her delivery. Therefore, she may experience non-sharing of her concerns and daily events. It increases the risk of holding back the sharing of her concerns and mental disengagement (Jung et al., 2016). Cognitive processing may be effected due to risk of fatigue, insomnia, depression and cognitive disturbance (National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre, 2009). It may also affect her mental resilience, childcare responsibilities, activities of daily living and performances (Wu et al., 2013). Mary has several protective factors relevant to her situation. She can accept the global meaning to her illness that is everything happens for a reason. It may help her reconsider her priorities and reduce intrusive thoughts (Stanton Bower, 2015). She is at young age and is at early stage. Mary can call her parents to stay with her. It may help her meet her needs of compassion and care. It will consequently assist Mary in coping mechanism. Counselling session can help her in developing mental resilience (Hooper, 2009). According to Pinto?Gouveia et al., (2014) psychopathological symptoms related to depression and stress can be decreased by increasing self-compassion. Self-compassionate attributes are beneficial in improving the psychological adjustment. Engaging in physical activity such as exercises and yoga, mindfulness based activities. Improving health literacy can help cope with the illness by participating in health promoting behaviour (Nyrop et al., 2016). Conclusion In conclusion, Mary may have detrimental effects due to unsupportive behaviour of her partner. However, there are protective factors, which may help her overcome her potential risks related to her illness. Healthy control on disease can be achieved by active participation in treatment and self-care activities. However, identifying and addressing the relevant risk factors by means of psycho-social interventions can help prevent advanced stage of illness. References Berman, M. G., Askren, M. K., Jung, M., Therrien, B., Peltier, S., Noll, D. C., . . . Cimprich, B. (2014;2013;). Pretreatment worry and neurocognitive responses in women with breast cancer.Health Psychology : Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association,33(3), 222-231. doi:10.1037/a0033425 Fernandes-Taylor, S., Adesoye, T., Bloom, J. R. (2015). Managing psychosocial issues faced by young women with breast cancer at the time of diagnosis and during active treatment.Current opinion in supportive and palliative care,9(3), 279-284. Hooper, L. M. (2009). Individual and family resilience: definitions, research, and frameworks relevant for all counselors. The Alabama Counseling Association Journal, 35(1), 1926. (Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ875400.pdf) Jung, M. S., Zhang, M., Askren, M. K., Berman, M. G., Peltier, S., Hayes, D. F., ... Cimprich, B. (2016). Cognitive dysfunction and symptom burden in women treated for breast cancer: a prospective behavioral and fMRI analysis.Brain imaging and behavior, 1-12. Lyman, G. H., Somerfield, M. R., Bosserman, L. D., Perkins, C. L., Weaver, D. L., Giuliano, A. E. (2017). Sentinel lymph node biopsy for patients with early-stage breast cancer: American society of clinical oncology clinical practice guideline update.Journal of Clinical Oncology,35(5), 561-564. doi:10.1200/JCO.2016.71.0947 Manne, S., Kashy, D. A., Siegel, S., Myers Virtue, S., Heckman, C., Ryan, D. (2014). Unsupportive partner behaviors, social-cognitive processing, and psychological outcomes in couples coping with early stage breast cancer.Journal of Family Psychology,28(2), 214. National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre. (2009). Breast cancer risk factors: a review of the evidence. Retrieved from https://canceraustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/breast-cancer-risk-factors-review-evidence/pdf/rfrw-breast-cancer-risk-factors-a-review-of-the-evidence_1.15.pdf Nyrop, K. A., Deal, A. M., Williams, G. R., Guerard, E. J., Pergolotti, M., Muss, H. B. (2016). Physical activity communication between oncology providers and patients with early?stage breast, colon, or prostate cancer.Cancer,122(3), 470-476. Park, E. M., Rosenstein, D. L. (2015). Depression in adolescents and young adults with cancer. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 17(2), 171180. (Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4518700/). Pinto?Gouveia, J., Duarte, C., Matos, M., Frguas, S. (2014). The protective role of self?compassion in relation to psychopathology symptoms and quality of life in chronic and in cancer patients.Clinical psychology psychotherapy,21(4), 311-323. Stanton, A. L., Bower, J. E. (2015). Psychological adjustment in breast cancer survivors. InImproving Outcomes for Breast Cancer Survivors(pp. 231-242). Springer International Publishing. Wu, G., Feder, A., Cohen, H., Kim, J. J., Calderon, S., Charney, D. S., Math, A. A. (2013). Understanding resilience. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00010