Mental symptoms, hostility features and stressful life events in people with cancer.

Hostility features, mental symptoms, and stressful life events were investigated in 100 patients (59 men and 41 women) suffering from cancer. Fifty-seven healthy men (n = 26) and women (n = 31) were used for comparison purposes. The assessment instruments were the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire, the Delusions Symptoms States Inventory/states of anxiety and depression and a modified version of the Schedule of Life Experiences. Women patients reported lower scores than healthy women on total hostility, but men patients reported higher scores than healthy men. Introverted hostility was increased in both male and female patients, but due to different patterns: in women due to lower scores on extroverted hostility subscales, especially acting-out hostility, whereas in men due to higher scores on introverted hostility subscales, especially guilt. Female patients, compared with healthy women, reported significantly higher scores on the depressive and anxiety subscales, whereas in the man the differences were not statistically significant even though patients reported higher scores than normals. On the Schedule of Life Experiences, female patients reported statistically significant higher scores than healthy women.