A new study published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute reveals that post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, is often seen in women who have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
Black, Asian and women under the age of 50 were found to have a 50 percent higher risk of developing PTSD as compared to white women, according to the study.
The research included analyzing data of 1,139 women part of the Breast Cancer Quality of Care Study that was conducted from 2006 to 2010 and found that 23 percent of the participants reported PTSD at two to three months following a diagnosis.
And symptoms of PTSD were shown to quell with time as the findings showed that 16.5 percent of participants reported the effects of PTSD four months post-diagnosis, while 12.6 percent reported the mental illness at six months--according to the study.
"During the first two to three months after diagnosis, nearly a quarter of them met the criteria for PTSD, although the symptoms declined over the next three months," Dr. Neugut of Columbia University and the study's lead author said.
"Younger women were more likely to develop symptoms of PTSD, and data suggest Asian and black women are at a more than 50 percent higher risk than white women."
Neugut said that study's importance exists on the idea that, through these results, researchers could use the data to improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients and could even help to understand breast cancer survival rates among different racial groups.
"The ultimate outcome of this research is to find ways to improve the quality of patients' lives," Neugut said. "If we can identify potential risk factors for PTSD, when women are diagnosed with breast cancer, could provide early prevention and intervention to minimize PTSD symptoms. This approach might also have an indirect impact on the observed racial disparity in breast cancer survival."
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