De. Shapiro et al., STAGE-II BREAST-CANCER - DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 4 COPING PATTERNS IN SIDE-EFFECTS DURING ADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY, Journal of psychosomatic research, 43(2), 1997, pp. 143-157
Fifty-six women with stage II breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemoth
erapy were recruited for a study evaluating and comparing coping patte
rns for differences in physical and psychological side effects during
treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy. Cluster analyses were used to sp
lit women into confrontive, avoidant-confrontive, avoidant-resigned, a
nd resigned coping clusters. Side-effect measurements were taken on th
e day of adjuvant chemotherapy infusion and 3 and 7 days later. Repeat
ed measures ANCOVAs indicated that coping clusters predicted significa
nt variance in physical, psychological, and total side effects when va
riance in covariates was held constant. Confrontive subjects reported
significantly fewer psychological and physical symptoms than avoidant-
confrontive and avoidant-resigned copers. Confrontive copers also repo
rted fewer side effects than resigned copers, but this difference was
not significant when differences in covariate distributions were contr
olled. Particularly robust differences were noted when confrontive cop
ers were compared with avoidant-confrontive copers. Results suggest th
at a critical component in optimal coping may be a willingness to disc
uss and think about illness. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.