Cure Mental Health of Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the malignant tumor with the highest morbidity and mortality in women [1]. According to the latest cancer report of the World Health Organization (WHO) for 2020, new patients with breast cancer accounted for 2.26 million (11.7% of new cases), surpassing lung cancer (11.4%) for the first time as the most common type of cancer worldwide [2]. The morbidity and mortality increased year by year, rapidly increased with age after 30 years old, and reached the peak at about 55 years old. With the development of diagnosis and treatment technology, the survival rate and survival time of patients with breast cancer are increasing year by year. The 5-year survival rate can reach more than 85%. In a sense, breast cancer has become a chronic disease. At the same time, we must see that the mental health in patients with breast cancer has become an important factor affecting the quality of life [3]. While we are concerned about the treatment of malignant tumor itself, we should also pay attention to the psychological harm caused by tumor and treatment itself to patients with breast cancer. Studies have shown that demographic factors such as age, residential area, education level and marital status have different effects on the psychological distress level of patients with breast cancer [4].

Study showed Marital status plays an important role in the maintenance of postoperative mental health in patients with breast cancer [5]. Emotional communication between husband and wife and the positive impact of spouse on patients with breast cancer can have a great positive effect on the mental health of patients, continuous encouragement and communication can timely eliminate the negative emotions, reduce the psychological barrier caused by disease and trauma to patients with breast cancer. Financial income is also a factor influencing the mental health status [6]. Because the treatment process of breast cancer is complicated and requires more money for surgery and radiotherapy, the treatment process would be affected due to lack of money especially in the later stage, which would cause psychological changes of patients with breast cancer.

Problems such as sexual dysfunction also have a greater impact and may even directly affect their potential life plans. Studies have shown that bpatients with breast cancer who are less educated and live in rural areas are at greater risk of psychological distress. Patients living mainly in rural areas have difficulty in obtaining comprehensive health care services. Patients with low education level may have lower economic status and more stressful life events, which are not conducive to their mental health development [7-8]. There is a strong correlation between the degree of psychological distress and childhood adversity in patients with breast cancer. Study found that patients with childhood adversity are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression in adulthood, because negative life events in early years can affect the development of nervous system, endocrine system and immune system, which increased risk of anxiety and depression in adulthood [9].

Group psychological intervention

Cancer survivors have experienced feelings of loneliness and alienation during the diagnosis and treatment process and need the help of peers. Group psychological intervention is a relatively new psychological intervention, through the form of group focus interview, enhance the cooperation and communication between patients. Through positive guidance, patients can get support from the group psychological intervention, alleviate loneliness, and help enhance their ability to adapt to life after cancer. Through group psychological intervention on 120 patients after radical breast cancer surgery, Song L found that the degree of psychological distress of patients was significantly reduced while eliminating the lack of information of patients and enhancing their self-acceptance [10].

Support expressive intervention

Supportive expression intervention therapy is cognitively, existentially oriented and emotionally centered, while promoting the establishment of social support, emotional expression and reflection on existing problems, thus reducing emotional disorders and trauma and improving coping. Traditional Chinese thinking leads patients to be reluctant to express negative emotions and worries, preferring to suppress expressions of negative emotions such as anger and anxiety to avoid burdening others. Research showed that the intervention could enhance patients’ resilience and adaptability, relieve their psychological distress, and make patients gradually change from the initial closed state to acceptance [11-12].

Virtual Reality (VR) technology

VR technology is a distracting form of intervention that provides synthetic stimuli, such as visual images, spatialized sounds, and tactile and olfactory feedback, by simultaneously mobilizing different senses [13]. It can help patients focus on pleasant stimuli and reduce negative emotions. However, the relative intervention cost is high, the sample size is small, and the specific effect needs to be further confirmed.

Positive spouse intervention

Partners are the primary source of support for patients with breast cancer throughout their cancer development. The more a couple avoids talking about cancer, the less chance a woman has of gaining useful perspectives to help her through her illness. In addition, chronic self-blame and lack of emotional support are not conducive to the improvement of psychological distress. Positive spouse intervention is a kind of psychological attachmentoriented couple intervention, which aims to enhance the adaptive ability of both partners by encouraging the coping style of mutual dependence between the couple. Nicolaisen et al. [14] conducted a 5-month hand-holding couples’ intervention on 198 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and their partners and found that this dual intervention had a positive adjustment effect on both couples and was effective in improving their health-related quality of life.

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