Psychological Distress Experience

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

EP trials are crucial in the development of a new cancer treatment. Given the side effects and limited knowledge of any new treatment, the inclusion of patients in this EP faces ethical barriers and communication barriers. This is all the more true as EPs are generally aimed at patients with advance...

EP trials are crucial in the development of a new cancer treatment. Given the side effects and limited knowledge of any new treatment, the inclusion of patients in this EP faces ethical barriers and communication barriers. This is all the more true as EPs are generally aimed at patients with advanced cancer. Also, faced with these different issues, volunteer patients usually have ambivalent motives. Catt and his collaborators have shown that the primary motivations for agreeing to integrate an early phase are the medical benefits, then the best option available, the maintenance of hope and only then, the aid to research. And more, at the beginning of a EP trial, most patients simultaneously experience multiple complex symptoms related to their cancer or treatment. These symptoms and their functional consequences generate psychological distress and reduce their quality of life related to health. Measuring psychological distress and quality of life before entering a clinical trial is therefore essential for the analysis of psychopathological processes. Since emotional regulation involves many aspects, it seems scientifically relevant to choose central scales, which cover broad psychopathological functions, to capture the psychological distress of patients. This battery of scales should include an assessment of levels of anxiety, depression and anger (as markers of irritability) but also pre-morbid psychological predispositions. Indeed, some variables such as resilience and optimism are known to influence the level of psychopathological symptomatology and the experience of cancer. Finally, qualitative interviews would better capture the experience of patients with advanced cancer when they are confronted with an end of treatment in EP.

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