Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Post-Traumatic Growth in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study in a Developing Country

Purpose Cancer treatment is one of the most stressful events in life. Breast cancer is the most common neoplasm among menopausal women. Regarding the shortage of evidence on its psychological effects, we aimed to evaluate the status of post-traumatic growth (PTG) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with breast cancer. Methods In this cross-sectional study, patients with breast cancer referred to the oncology radiotherapy clinic of Imam Reza and Omid Hospital were selected consecutively. We assessed PTG/PTSD scores in these patients. The independent sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, ANOVA test, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to compare the findings in IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 23. Results A total of 136 patients with a mean age of 11.3 +/- 48.6 years old were studied. PTSD scores in patients who had recently been diagnosed with the disease were significantly higher than in those who had been diagnosed for a more extended period (p = 0.001). The mean score of PTSD was significantly different according to the treatment options (p = 0.001). Results showed no significant correlation between PTSD and PTG (r = 0.006, p = 0.95). Conclusion Our study suggested that type of treatment performed for patients and the time of diagnosis significantly affect PTSD, indicating the need for psychological therapy in these patients.