Women's Experience of Breast Cancer (version 1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A psychoanalytic study of women's experience of the diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent treatments
IRAS ID
159152
Contact name
Merja Kaarina Mäkinen-Martindale
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
13042730, Student Registration Number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 30 days
Research summary
Although breast cancer has become one of the most common illnesses amongst women in the UK, the survival rates have also rapidly increased. This situation, with so many more survivors than ever before, raises the question, as to how much the illness itself and the different treatment procedures will affect the quality of women's psychological life. The NHS may increasingly face major demands in the future to offer psychological support for breast cancer survivors. Present guidelines and policies put the main emphasis on depression, probably due to the medically dominated approach to care, which offers antidepressants as a main treatment. In my self funded research I want to understand women's individual experiences of the diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent treatments. I will recruit a purposive sample of ten women with newly diagnosed breast cancer who will be all going through a breast operation followed by chemo- and/or radiotherapy. I will follow these women in the different stages of their medical treatment in order to understand, from a psychoanalytic perspective, the meaning of the illness for each individual woman and whether there are any specific factors which will determine the level of her distress. For my methods I will use four semi-structured psychoanalytic interviews and a questionnaire. The study will be conducted in the Breast Clinic at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne. If my research was to indicate some common, recognizable features of distress, this information could be the basis for organising more regular support and deeper psychological understanding for breast cancer patients. This information could also help staff members to assess the cases where the support is most needed. By recognizing the particular patient groups at risk, these patients could be helped more quickly and the quality of their psychological life will be improved.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NE/0176
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion