Carver, C. S. (2005). Enhancing adaptation during treatment, and the role of individual differences. Cancer, 104, 2602-2607.
With increases in the effectiveness of medical treatment for cancer,
more attention has been directed to the quality of life of cancer
patients and cancer survivors. Work on this topic is aimed at better
understanding the determinants of positive quality of life and creating
ways to optimize these outcomes along with medical ones. Insights from
many disciplines inform this effort. For example, personality
psychology suggests there are naturally occurring differences in
resilience; this discipline also suggests ways to enhance adaptation
and promote greater resilience. The view underlying our work is of
people as goal seeking beings, whose efforts toward desired outcomes
are threatened by diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Some people react
to such adversity in life with increased efforts, others with a
giving-up response. This difference promotes differences in emotional
well being. Our group’s effort to enhance adaptation seeks to provide
skills for stress management, which permit patients to remain engaged
in the pursuits that form their lives. This stress management
intervention has reduced prevalence of depression among breast cancer
patients and increased the extent to which they report positive
sequelae from the cancer experience. The latter effect has also been
related to differential reduction in cortisol. Ongoing work is
examining the longer-term effects of this intervention, along with the
possibility that the intervention will have positive consequences for
physical health.
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