Psychological distress impact and associated factors among Jordanian women diagnosed with breast cancer

Background: Patients with breast cancer often experience an extremely high psychological distress. Psychological distress includes both depression and anxiety as a specific framework. Existing study in these psychological symptoms (either anxiety or depression) were more strongly associated with the level of pain that is unavailable in breast cancer patients. This research aims to compare the levels of depression and anxiety among patients with different levels of psychological distress. The association between changes in distress at baseline and time of admissions with depression and anxiety was examined. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The study included two hundred female people who are suffering from breast cancer. They were tested using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at the time of diagnosis -Baseline and during admission. The data were collected on age, ethnicity, types of treatment and cancer staging. Results: There is no significant difference of mean anxiety between intervention and control group at baseline (P = 0.361) and admission time (P = 0.385) but various age groups showed a statistically significant difference on their corresponding mean perceived anxiety (P=0.028) with having previous medical insurance (P = 0.050). Also there is no significant difference of mean depression in baseline and admission time. Aged women experience less depression, although there is no significant difference. Women without previous medical insurance have higher level of depression compare with others (P = 0.003). Conclusion: Anxiety and depression are a type of severe psychiatric condition that has attributed to the feelings of apprehension in breast cancer. Finding from this study would support screening for anxiety and depression, early diagnosis, and counselling to improve the psychological well-being of patients with breast cancer. Further research would be required to assess the therapeutic interventions' efficacy.