Psychological distress and coping in breast cancer patients and healthy women whose parents survived the Holocaust

Abstract

Psychological distress levels of breast cancer patients whose parents were Holocaust survivors ('second-generation Holocaust' patients) were previously shown to be significantly higher than those of a matched group of patients with non-traumatized parents. In this study, we investigated whether this effect reflects only the generally higher distress levels of second-generation Holocaust women or whether breast cancer patients with traumatized parents also present lower adaptation abilities, which result in increased distress to the breast cancer diagnosis. We assessed psychological distress and measures of coping in 193 second-generation Holocaust patients diagnosed with breast cancer, 164 breast cancer patients with non-traumatized parents, 176 healthy second-generation Holocaust women, and 143 healthy women with non-traumatized parents. The main effect of cancer and the main effect of second-generation Holocaust survivor on psychological distress were found to be significant. These two factors (cancer x second generation) had a synergistic effect on the levels of depression and psychoticism. These results support the hypothesis that, at least on some psychological measures, the cumulative distressing effect of having traumatized parents and breast cancer diagnosis is higher than the effect of each factor alone.