Are patient-nurse relationships in breast cancer linked to adult attachment style?

Aims: The aim of this study was to ascertain if patients with breast cancer who have positive attachment models of 'self' and 'other' perceive higher levels of support from nurses than do patients with negative attachment models.

Background: Attachment models of 'self' and 'other' develop in childhood and affect relationships throughout life. People with negative attachment models tend to perceive themselves as unworthy of receiving support and to perceive others as incapable or unwilling to offer support.

Sexual abuse in childhood and postoperative depression in women with breast cancer who opt for immediate reconstruction after mastectomy.

Introduction: Breast reconstruction is routinely offered to women who undergo mastectomy for breast cancer. However, patient-reported outcomes are mixed. Child abuse has enduring effects on adults' well-being and body image.

[The accuracy of HADS and GHQ-12 in detecting psychiatric morbidity in breast cancer patients].

Objective: Psychological problems should be identified in breast cancer patients proactively if doctors and nurses are to help them cope with the challenges imposed by their illness. Screening is one possible way to identify emotional problems proactively. Self-report questionnaires can be useful alternatives to carrying out psychiatric interviews during screening, because interviewing a large number of patients can be impractical due to limited resources.

The perception of support received from breast care nurses by depressed patients following a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Introduction: Due to their specialist training, breast care nurses (BCNs) should be able to detect emotional distress and offer support to breast cancer patients. However, patients who are most distressed after diagnosis generally experience least support from care staff. To test whether BCNs overcome this potential barrier, we compared the support experienced by depressed and non-depressed patients from their BCNs and the other main professionals involved in their care: surgeons and ward nurses.

Relationships with clinical staff after a diagnosis of breast cancer are associated with patients' experience of care and abuse in childhood.

Objective: Patients experiencing the crisis of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer need to form trusting and supportive relationships with clinical staff. However, adverse childhood experiences damage the ability to form supportive relationships as adults. We tested the prediction that women recalling childhood abuse and lack of parental care would experience poorer support from clinical staff caring for them around the time of diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast cancer.

The role of child abuse and age in vulnerability to emotional problems after surgery for breast cancer.

Emotional problems are common after breast cancer, but patients differ in their vulnerability. Childhood abuse is a risk factor for emotional problems in adult women, and we tested whether it explains some of the variability in emotional problems after breast cancer. Women with primary breast cancer (N=355) 2-4 d after surgery (mastectomy or wide local excision) self-reported current emotional distress, post-traumatic stress, self-blame, bodily shame and recollections of childhood sexual, physical and emotional abuse.