Correlation between Cancer Pain and Psychological Health Problems in Breast Cancer Patients: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Abstract Background Cancer pain in breast cancer patients is under-diagnosed and under-treated, as it rarely happens. Cancer management can cause physical and psychological changes. The two most common problems are anxiety and depression. A few studies have shown that psychological problems are related to cancer pain, but it is not clear to what extent the pain affects them. Therefore, the aim of this study is to know the correlation between cancer pain and psychological aspect in breast cancer patients. Methods A cross-sectional study was done at our general hospital, from October 2018-February 2019. The sample is breast cancer patients that have undergone mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy. Brief Pain Inventory and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaire were used to evaluate the patients. BPI score ranges from 1, pain does not interfere with daily life, to 10, pain interferes. HADS has a total score of 21, where 0-7 is normal, 8-10 is the borderline, and 11-21 means anxiety and/or depression is present. Baseline characteristics were presented using descriptive statistics. Correlation between both variables were analysed with Spearman correlation. Results 36 breast cancer patients, with a mean age of 50.19\xa0±\xa011.089 years old, were included. Median pain on general activity, mood, walking, working, sleeping, relaxing, and interacting is 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, and 1, consecutively, with a median of 1.29 (1-7.57). From 19 patients, 47.2% patients have no anxiety, 30.6% patients on borderline, and 22.2% patients have anxiety. Meanwhile, 66.7% patients have no depression, 30.6% patients on borderline, and 2.8% patients with depression. Correlation between pain and anxiety is r=0.425 (p-value=0.069), while between pain and depression is r=0.229 (p-value=0.265). Conclusion There is no correlation between cancer pain and psychological health problems. Further study with greater sample size is needed to confirm the Result.