Evaluation of the management of PTSD patients with oncological diagnosis

The literature on psychotraumatology has revealed a significant relation between the patient’s awareness of cancer diagnosis and the development of the post-traumatic stress disorder. DSM- 5 describes as potentially traumatic events such as “being diagnosed with a life threatening disease witnessing events witnessing serious injury or death of another person unexpectedly witnessing a dead body or body parts†. This paper aims to assess the level of posttraumatic stress disorder in a young patient, M.C. aged 39, diagnosed with cancer, and to follow the stress-coping methods in relation to the evolution of the disease.The following psychological instruments were used to assess the level of posttraumatic stress disorder and the patient’s capacity to cope with it after being diagnosed: anamnesis, Freiburg Personality Inventory - FPI, authors J. Fahrenberg, H. Selg and R. Hampel (1978), the Impact assessment scale critical situations – SISC, authors Horowitz, Wilner and Alvarez (1979), the Social Support Questionnaire - SSQ authors Sarason et al. (1983), Beck’s depression inventory, author A. T. Beck (1981), the Stress Perception Questionnaire – SPQ authors Levenstein et al. (1993), the Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced – COPE questionnaire, authors Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., Weintraub, J. K. (1998) and the Locus of Control Scale, authors Nowicki and Strickland (1973). The patient faced major difficulties in coping with the stress after being diagnosed, displaying a constant tendency of internal locus of control over his own experience. He displays significant difficulties in expressing himself emotionally and developed certain phobic and aggressive tendencies towards family members and friends. “The neoplastic disease can be associated, in terms of psychological processes, to an inability to create and maintain social relationships that provide security, which is partly due to a deficit related to the locus of control, which is almost exclusively internal. Such persons can even go so far as to attack the other’s self-image, perceived as incapable to manage their own existence, and therefore overburden themselves with irrational responsibilities.†(Iliuță and Tănăsescu,2015)