Stressful Events and Social Support Impact Patients' Ability to Cope.(with breast cancer)

2001 FEB 15 - (NewsRx.com) -- The findings of a recent study support the additive model of adaptation for cancer patients, which suggests that stressful events and social support directly impact cancer patients' adjustment, irrespective of the magnitude of the other.

The results also indicate that specific stressful events, including the death of a family member or close friend and a personal illness/injury, as well as divorce/separation, and recent treatment for cancer are significantly correlated with psychological distress. The evidence suggests that the more of these variables present, the more likely it is for a patient to experience severe psychological distress.

The findings were featured in the January 15, 2001, issue of Cancer (Alice B. Komblith, PhD, et al., "Social support as a buffer to the psychological impact of stressful life events in women with breast cancer," Cancer 2001;91(2):443-454).

The stress-illness vulnerability theory has been adopted as the broad theoretical model for interpreting adaptation of breast cancer patients and their ability to cope with the disease. Cancer and its treatments are identified as the stressors in this model, while patient adaptation is the outcome, mediated by a range of intervening factors that may either further exacerbate or ameliorate the stress of cancer and its treatment. The intervening factors include social support, other stressors (mainly concurrent stressful life events and comorbid conditions), lack of economic resources, and individual characteristics.

Prior research has demonstrated a strong correlation between stressful life events and psychological distress. The pathogenic triad was proposed by researchers as a model for cause and effect. Defined as "a cluster of major negative events that are outside a person's control and highly related to poor adjustment," the pathologic triad includes fateful loss events, severe physical illness or injury, and major loss of social support.

In addition, several theories have been proposed to explain the impact of social support on the experience of stressful life events and the patients' subsequent ability to adjust. The additive or direct effect model proposes that social support and stressful life events each influence adjustment irrespective of the presence of the other. The buffering model suggests that social support protects or buffers the effect of stressful life events on adjustment.

Researchers argued that due to the multidimensional nature of social support, it is also possible that a combination of both the additive and the buffering model can best explain the relationship between social support and stressful life events with regard to their impact on emotional state.