암환자 심리에 대한 예비적 연구

A Prel5iminary Study of the Psychological Response of Cancer Patients

This is a preliminary study of cancer patients’ attitude. 56 patients who were treated at the radiotherapy center were asked about their emotional responses during diagnostic and therapeutic course. Almost all patients wanted to be told they had cancer. Patients who did not want to be told were mainly those without any religion. When the patients were informed of their diagnosis, they showed denial and acute emotional turmoil intitiallly. Patients with lower level education showed less emotional response. More than half of the patients suffered emotionally and physically from the treatment procedures. But they were more concerned about financial burden than their emotional suffering. Physicians were found to be important for patients’ emotional well being ; majority of patients wanted to be told about the prognosis by their physicians ; patients who were told of the prognosis by their physicians showed positive attitude toward the future more frequently. The kind of religion a patient had did not influence the coping abilities of the person in any significant way.