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Mental Health

The Stress of Cancer: When to Seek Help

Summary & Participants

Cancer is an upsetting experience. Worries about treatments and the future make it hard to function. Find what to do if the stress is too much to handle.

Medically Reviewed On: July 04, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Modern life is often tough. Maybe it's the car payments. Or your child's bad report card. Add a serious illness like cancer to that mix and you have a recipe for stress.

JOSÉE SAVARD, PhD: They do worry about a lot of things, about what is going to happen with their treatment. Are they going to have side effects? What will be the efficacy of this treatment regimen? And, also, in the long term, will they have to live always with this situation? Will it recur, or will it be cured?

ANNOUNCER: Worries seem to come with the territory when cancer strikes. Studies show over a third of cancer patients report being distressed. And it seems the younger you are, the tougher it is to handle the disease.

JOSÉE SAVARD, PhD: Recent study shows that younger patients have more severe psychological reactions than older patients. Probably because it's not as expected in your life, when you have a cancer at, let's say, 40 years old. And you're a mother or you're a father and you have a job and it's not as expected as it is when you get older.

ANNOUNCER: Cancer patients have a lot to deal with: diagnosis, treatment and an uncertain future.

JOSÉE SAVARD, PhD: Stress is likely to appear at every stage of the disease. So at diagnosis, during treatment and also after treatment.

ANNOUNCER: Treatment. It's a big issue for cancer patients. Some report the side effects may be as difficult to take as the disease itself. But while losing your hair is devastating for some people, others may turn it into a fashion statement.

JOSÉE SAVARD, PhD: The reaction to the treatment side effects may vary a lot from one person to the other, so one person may react very negatively to hair loss and the other one may adapt to it very easily.

ANNOUNCER: Surprisingly, for some the end of cancer treatment is the most difficult time of all.

JOSÉE SAVARD, PhD: Several patients actually find it difficult when the treatments end, because they feel that they're not fighting any more. They feel that they are not supported any more by their medical team. That's when several patients will consult a psychologist or psychiatrist to help them cope with their disease, when the treatment is ended.

ANNOUNCER: The stress that accompanies the upheaval of a major illness can wreak havoc on a person's life. And it is difficult to adjust to. This problem, called an adjustment disorder, usually shows up within three months of a diagnosis.

JOSÉE SAVARD, PhD: Adjustment disorders are more common in cancer patients than in the general population. And they're the most frequent psychological problems that we encounter in those patients.

Adjustment disorders are disorders that are less severe than major depression or other anxiety disorders, but they are also difficulties that impair functioning

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