Psychological Aspects of Cancer Pain

Abstract

Carcinomatous patients are occasionally accompanied by emotional changes such as unstableness, depression, anger due to intractable pain induced suddenly.To investigate psychological aspects of carcinomatous patients with pain, three kinds of tests --- Yatabe Guilford test (YG), Cornell Medical Index (CMI) and Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) --- were applied to 37 carcinomatous patients (Group 1) and compared with other diseases with pain (Group 2) or normal persons (Group 3).1. YG resulted in mostly type A', A, C and C' in group 1, while type D, D' in group 2 and 3.2. CMI representing a neurosis indicated 57% in group 1, 42% in group 2 and 22% in group 3.3. Mental subjective symptoms due to CMI were 35% of touchy character, 24% of a suicide trend, 11% of hopelessness and 11% of melancholy in group 1, while 28% of touchy character 14% of a suicide trend and 10% of hopelessness in group 2, and 16% of touchy character but no case of a suicide trend and hopelessness in group 3.4. MAS representing anxiety indicated 36% of anxiety in higher grade, 29% of anxiety in middle grade and 36% of normality in group 1, 18% of anxiety in high grade, 9% of anxiety in middle grade and 73% of normality in group 2, and 19% of anxiety in higher grade, 30% of anxiety in middle grade and 51% of normality in group 3.