Centre for Psycho-Oncology Research and Training, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Laboratory of Neuropsychology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
Psychooncology. 2018 Mar;27(3):983-989. doi: 10.1002/pon.4620. Epub 2018 Jan 15.
To examine if bias in attention to and interpretation of cancer-related stimuli differentiates women with persistent psychological distress from those with low/transient distress following breast cancer.
One-hundred forty women classified in a prior longitudinal study as having low (n = 73) or persistent high (n = 67) distress completed 2 modified dot-probe tasks assessing attention bias and an ambiguous cues task assessing interpretation bias toward cancer-related vs neutral information. Psychological distress was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale. Four-way repeated analysis of variance was adopted.
Participants with persistent high distress from the original study who continued to report high Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale scores (≥8) on recruitment into the present study comprised the persistent distress group (ie, 31 reporting high anxiety and 30 reporting high depression scores). Persistent distress and low distress groups did not differ in attentional bias toward negative-stimuli or cancer-related information, but a significant time-course effect in attentional bias toward negative-stimuli or cancer-related information was observed, with women in the persistent distress group showing a significant bias away from negative-stimuli or cancer-related information under supraliminal conditions. There was a borderline difference in interpretation bias scores between low anxiety and chronic anxiety groups (P = .065), with correlation suggesting a significant positive association (r = 0.20, P = .019).
Women with persistent distress may adopt avoidance strategies to cope with breast cancer. Moreover, women reporting persistent anxiety may have a tendency to negatively interpret ambiguous information, leading to illness preoccupation. These findings offer critical insight for clinicians to develop tailored interventions to help women with persistent psychological distress.
探究在关注和解释癌症相关刺激时是否存在偏向，从而区分乳腺癌后持续性心理困扰和低/一过性心理困扰的女性。
在一项先前的纵向研究中，140 名女性被分为低（n=73）或持续性高（n=67）困扰的组别，完成了 2 项修改后的点探测任务，评估对癌症相关和中性信息的注意偏向，以及一项对癌症相关和中性信息的模糊线索任务，评估解释偏向。使用医院焦虑抑郁量表评估心理困扰。采用四向重复方差分析。
在原始研究中持续存在高困扰的参与者，如果在招募进入本研究时继续报告高医院焦虑抑郁量表评分（≥8），则构成持续性困扰组（即 31 名报告高焦虑和 30 名报告高抑郁评分）。持续性困扰组和低困扰组在对负面刺激或癌症相关信息的注意力偏向方面没有差异，但在对负面刺激或癌症相关信息的注意力偏向方面观察到了显著的时间进程效应，在持续性困扰组中，在超敏条件下，女性对负面刺激或癌症相关信息表现出明显的回避偏向。在低焦虑和慢性焦虑组之间，解释偏向得分存在边缘差异（P=0.065），相关性表明存在显著的正相关（r=0.20，P=0.019）。
持续性困扰的女性可能会采用回避策略来应对乳腺癌。此外，报告持续性焦虑的女性可能有对模糊信息进行负面解释的倾向，导致对疾病的过分关注。这些发现为临床医生提供了重要的见解，以制定有针对性的干预措施，帮助持续性心理困扰的女性。
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