Psychological correlates of resilience in women with breast cancer

Introduction: A diagnosis of cancer is a stressful event which has the potential to elicit psychological disturbances, especially depressive symptoms, and to decrease quality of life. Resilience may be crucial to preserve mental health in patients coping with cancer. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between resilience and quality of life, depression and demoralization in oncology. Methods: One hundred and forty-two women with breast cancer (mean age 53.4 ± 10.8 years; 75.4% with primitive cancer and 24.6% with metastatic cancer) underwent the following battery: Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, demoralization section of the Structured Interview according to the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR), ConnorDavidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Demoralization Scale (DS). Results: Women with DSM-IV major depressive disorder (21.8% of participants) and those with demoralization according to the DCPR (24.6% of participants) had significantly lower levels of resilience (CD-RISC) than those without these diagnoses. Lower scores on the CD-RISC were significantly associated with higher levels of demoralization (DS) and depressive symptoms (BDI) and with a worse quality of life on all the SF-36 scales, except for “pain”. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a protective role of resilience against the development of depressive symptomatology, which was found to be significantly associated with a poor outcome in cancer patients. Enhancement of resilience, through specific psychological interventions, may be crucial to prevent depressive symptoms and to maintain quality of life in cancer patients.