암환자들과 비암환자들 간의 스트레스 지각의 비교

A Comparison o f Stress Perception between Cancer and Non-cancer Patients

A comparison was made between cancer and non-cancer patients regarding stress perception. Cancer patients showed lower scores of stress perception than non-cancer patients, but there was no significant difference in frequency of stressors the between both the groups. Stress perception correlated negatively with age, whereas it correlated positively with level of education and duration of illness in cancer patients. Among them, severity of psychic distress correlated with stress perception, but severity of physical symptoms did not correlate with it. The cancer patients showed higher resistance to psychiatric approach than non-cancer patients. In both the groups, psychiatric acceptance correlated with stress perception. However the cancer patients showed such correlations in more items than the noncancer patients. These results suggest that denial in cancer patients could be related to low stress perception. In conclusion, despite similar proportions of psychic distress in frequency and intensity between both the groups, cancer patients showed lower scores of stress perception and higher resistance to psychiatric treatment than noncancer patients. Thus, it is recommended that nonpsychiatric physicians should primarily manage most of the cancer patients except those with severe psychiatric problems for which psychiatrists should manage. On the other hand, psychiatrists’ role should be focused on education of the nonpsychiatric physicians to promote understanding of the psychosocial aspect of can-cer.