Volume 30, Issue 1, 2021
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.2046
Effect of pain catastrophizing on quality of life of breast cancer patients
Abstract
Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of surgical methods and pain catastrophizing on quality of life (QoL) in the postoperative period of patients who had surgery for breast cancer.
Patients and Methods: The study included 72 female patients with an average age of 52 years. For the evaluation of pain catastrophizing, the patients were divided into two groups based on the cut-off value determined for Turkish society in pain catastrophe scale (PCS-TR) form. The first group consisted of the patients who had PCS < 17 (n = 45) and the second group had the patients who had PCS ? 17 (n = 27). The patients were also classified based on the applied surgical treatment. Group I consisted of the patients who underwent breast conserving surgery (BCS) (n = 34) and the Group II included the patients who had modified radical mastectomy (MRM) (n = 38). Short Form (SF-36) was used to evaluate the QoL of the patients. Based on their answers to questions in SF-36 form, effects of PCS and surgical treatment on QoL were compared.
Results: The QoL of patients with PCS < 17 was significantly higher than those with PCS ? 17 (p < 0.05). Also, the surgical treatment method had no significant effect on QoL (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: Our findings showed that catastrophizing caused a deterioration in QoL of patients who underwent surgical treatment for breast cancer, while surgical treatment modality had no effect.
Keywords
: Breast cancer, Mastectomy, Pain catastrophizing, Quality of life, Short Form-36