Relationship between post traumatic growth and personality characteristics among patients with breast cancer undergoing postoperative radiotherapy

Abstract

Objective To understand the relationship between psychological symptoms and personality of breast cancer patients undergoing postoperative radiotherapy .Methods A total of 169 patients with breast cancer undergoing postoperative radiotherapy were investigated with Eysenck personality questionnaire （ EPQ ） and post traumatic growth inventory （PTGI）, in order to understand their personality characteristics status and post traumatic growth levels .Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data.Results The total score of PTGI was （65.83 ±177;13.28）, and there were statistically significant differences in the PTGI scores among different groups of patients who had different EPQ scores in three dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism （F =14.353,9.343,10.534, respectively; P ＜0.01）.The extraversion of patients was positively correlated with their total score of PTGI （r=0.342, P＜0.01）, and the neuroticism and psychoticism of patients were negatively correlated with their total score of PTGI （r=-0.250,-0.287, respectively; P ＜0.01）.The result of regression analysis showed that post traumatic growth of patients with breast cancer was affected by extraversion , neuroticism and psychoticism of EPQ （β=0.343,-0.264, -0.273, respectively;P＜0.05）.Conclusions There is a certain level of post traumatic growth among breast cancer patients undergoing postoperative radiotherapy , and there is different growth levels among patients with different personality . Key words: Breast neoplasm; Radiotherapy; Personality; Post traumatic growth; Survey