Fear of cancer growth in family members’ and care givers’ women with breast cancer: nature of intrusive thoughts

Introduction: Although the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is almost universalin cancer survivors and a number of studies confirm it as a consequence ofcancer, few studies have been carried out to assess the fear of cancer growth infamily members and caregivers. In this study, the main aim was to investigatethe character and frequency of fear of cancer growth and to clarify itsrelationship with cancer-related intrusive cognitions in caregivers.Methods: A sample of 120 of caregivers of women with breast cancer as theparticipants completed, the Fear of Cancer Inventory (FCI) and the CognitionIntrusive Questionnaire (CIQ) in the hospital (in the cancer ward and clinic).Results: In total, 43.6% of participants were classified as having moderate tohigh of fear. Having intolerance pain, lost beautifully, and likelihood to diewere the most frequent fears. FC was significantly associated with younger age,having children, , physical and mental Quality Of Life (QOL), chemotherapyand perceived amount of impairments in her patient, but not with education.Intrusive cognitions were screened in 37% of the sample. A significantcorrelations between FC and intrusive thoughts (r=0.63), avoidance (r=0.57),hyper-arousal (r=0.54) and posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis (r=0.42).Percentages of endorsement obtained on CIQ items were show intrusivethoughts associated with FC characteristics such as worries (i.e., verbalcontent). However, intrusive thoughts associated with High FC in caregiverspresented more characteristics of obsessions.Conclusion: Findings of this study give information regarding the frequencyand the character of anxiety in caregivers with a patient suffer from breastcancer. Characteristics of intrusive thoughts associated with FC suggesteddifferent targets for FC specific intervention. Results suggest that intrusivecognitions seem to be closely related to fear of cancer growth.

کلیدواژه ها:

Fear of cancer growth (FCG) ، caregivers ، intrusive thoughts