How Patients with Less-Advanced and More-Advanced Cancer Deal with Three Death-Related Fears: An Exploratory Study

• Published in: Journal of psychosocial oncology 2008-01, Vol.26 (1), p.53-68
• Main Authors: Sigal, John J., Ouimet, Marie Claude, Margolese, Richard, Panarello, Laura, Stibernik, Vida, Bescec, Susan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Anxiety; Attitude to Death; Biological and medical sciences; Cancer; Cancer stage; Comparative studies; Coping; coping styles; Death & dying; death anxieties; Defense mechanisms; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Health Care Services; Humans; Illness and personality; Illness, stress and coping; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Neoplasms - pathology; Neoplasms - psychology; optimism; Patients; Personality; Physicians; psychological distress; Psychology; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Quebec; religiosity/spirituality; Sex Factors; Spirituality; Stress, Psychological - etiology; Stress, Psychological - psychology
• ISSN: 0734-7332; 1540-7586
• DOI: 10.1300/J077v26n01_04

The means used by cancer patients to cope with each of three death anxieties (i.e., fear of pain and suffering, loneliness, and the unknown) that contribute to their psychological distress have rarely been examined. Differences between cancer patients with Stage I or II disease (Group 1) and Stage III or IV disease (Group 2) were explored. T-tests revealed no difference between the groups. Age-controlled Pearson correlations were used to determine the relationship between all three death anxieties, and some recognized coping devices used by cancer patients, namely, coping styles, optimism, and religiosity/spirituality. Results showed that, for Group 1, avoidant coping correlated positively with fear of the unknown, and social diversion correlated positively with fear of pain and suffering. As for similarities between groups, with the exception of fear of pain and suffering for Group 2, emotion-focused coping correlated positively with all three death anxieties, and optimism correlated negatively with fear of the unknown. The advantage for researchers and clinicians of including measures or evaluation of the death anxieties in their considerations of the psychological distress of cancer patients is discussed.