Unwanted Support In Breast Cancer

Posting Date: 07/14/2004

For Immediate Release

July 13, 2004

UNWANTED SUPPORT IN BREAST CANCER RECOVERY MAY BACKFIRE

By Aaron Levin, Science Writer

Health Behavior News Service

Women with breast cancer who receive unwanted support have more trouble

adjusting to the disease than those who receive no support at all, a new

study suggests.

Researchers Julie S. Reynolds and Nancy A. Perrin of the Kaiser

Permanente Center for Health Research and Oregon Health & Science

University in Portland report in the journal Health Psychology that the

negative effect of unwanted support was more substantial to the women's

psychosocial adjustment to their illness than was the positive effect of

support they welcomed.

"Women with breast cancer vary in the social support actions they want,"

Reynolds and Perrin say. But there was no simple agreement among the

women about what sort of support they wanted. Only 17 of the 40 items in

the survey were consistently wanted or not wanted by the women.

Among the support items were statements like: "Asks if I want to go

out," "Helps take my mind off cancer," "Reminds me things could be

worse," "Tries to understand my situation" and others.

Matching the support a woman wants with what she receives is an

important factor in her psychosocial adjustment to the disease, they

say.

Most of the 79 women in their study received the type of support they

desired. Support usually came from spouses/partners or other family

members. On average, each woman received about 88 percent of the support

she wanted and did not receive about 92 percent of the support she did

not want.

However, the women reported receiving about 8 percent of their support

in ways they did not want, Reynolds and Perrin say. Undesired support

may include unwanted explanations about the cancer or emotional

overinvolvement by the support provider.

"Low satisfaction with a specific support action could reflect the

manner in which the action was carried out, or the fact that the woman

did not want that type of support," they say.

Women's responses fell into four patterns. One group wanted only support

that provided them with information and advice. A second group sought

reassurance that things would soon return to normal. A third preferred

to be treated as though nothing had happened, while the last group

wanted support that allowed a woman to talk about her cancer but not to

receive any advice.

"Interestingly, no one support pattern was associated with better or

worse psychosocial adjustment," they say. "But within each support

pattern, women varied in their psychosocial adjustment depending on the

degree to which their supporter matched their desired support pattern.

More helpful support for breast cancer patients might come from better

communication between patients and support providers, they say. Asking

women in advance what they do and do not want, then counseling them and

their supporters. That could clarify their attitudes more closely and

lead to better adjustment on the part of the patients, the researchers

add.

"Helping support givers and receivers align their expectations and

actions may make a difference in psychosocial adjustment to breast

cancer," they say.

Funding for this research came from grants by the Susan G. Komen Breast

Cancer Foundation and Sigma Xi.

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