PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SURGICAL PATIENTS WITH THYROID DISEASE

Abstract

The present study examined the psychological characteristics of surgical patients with Graves’ diseases (GD) and papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) through the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Baum test before and after the surgery. In the pre-test [Study 1], the PTC group scored higher on “externallyoriented thinking” of the TAS-20 and drew less structured trees regarding the boundary, consistency, and inner differentiation, compared with the control group. In the post-test [Study 2], the mean score of “externally-oriented thinking” of the TAS-20 was lower, and the mean score of “difficulty identifying feelings” of the TAS-20 was higher than that of the pre-test, respectively. The trees drawn in the post-test were classified into following three clusters; “changed into a more stable structure”, “changed into a more unstable structure”, and “unchanged”. We discussed that the genuine psychotherapy is needed for those who showed more fundamental psychological changes.