Jc. Coyne et al., Distress and psychiatric morbidity among women from high-risk breast and ovarian cancer families, J CONS CLIN, 68(5), 2000, pp. 864-874
This study assessed psychological distress and psychiatric disorder in high
-risk women enrolled in a hereditary breast and ovarian cancer registry, an
d it evaluated the concordance between self-report data and interview-based
psychiatric diagnosis. A sample of 464 women completed the Hopkins Symptom
Checklist-25 and were interviewed using modules of the Structured Clinical
Interview for DSM-IV. Level of psychological distress and the prevalence o
f psychiatric disorder were low and in the range that would be expected for
a sample of community-residing women. Screening proved inefficient: Less t
han 10% of distressed women met criteria for a clinical disorder. High-risk
women seeking genetic testing in research settings may not require extensi
ve psychological screening and diagnostic assessment. Caution is expressed
about possible self-selection biases in women enrolled in hereditary cancer
registries.