ADJUSTMENT OF MARRIED-COUPLES AND UNMARRIED WOMEN TO GYNECOLOGICAL CANCER

This two-part study, conducted at the Department of Oncology, Linn Cli nic, Haifa, Israel, compared the psychological and psychosocial adjust ment to illness of 44 gynaecological cancer patients to that of their spouses, and the adjustment to illness of these 44 married patients co mpared to 18 unmarried gynaecological cancer patients. In the first pa rt of the study, differences in psychological distress between marriag e partners, measured by Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), were found, the distress of the husband being more severe than that of the wife. In t he second part of the study, the psychological distress of unmarried w omen was found to be more severe than that of married women.