Cognitive Appraisal of Patients with Cancer Following Telling about the Diagnosis

Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify changes in cognitive appraisal of significance disease made by cancer patients following telling about the diagnosis, and to collect information which would help reduced the psychological distress of patients when the diagnosis is told.

The subjects were 13 patients with cancer whose the diagnosis was told for the first time and who gave informed consent to be involved in the study. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview.

As a result, perceiving they had cancer resulted in their mental-representation of “shocked at the threat of having cancer” and “confronted with my pre-ordained cancer”. Patients who described “shocked at the threat of having cancer” experienced the crisis and reported their mental state with such phrases as, “I am overwhelmed by cancer”, “I am unbelievably having cancer”, “I can't face with having cancer”, “I am trapped by cancer”, “I am uncertainty my own existence”. Some of these patients later changed their report of mental state to “I can confirm my own existence” after hearing of the good experiences of other individuals who had had cancer, and obtaining favorable information from their physician. Patients who described “confronted with my pre-ordained cancer” used statements such as, “I can't escape from my fate” and “Cancer is my fate”, “Cancer is a breakdown of my body”. To help patients with cancer, it is essential for nurses to talk with the patients and assess the psycho-social condition of each patient so that the nurses can provide adequate information to the patients and help them think realistically about their disease.