Research Information System
Turk Onkoloji Dergisi, vol.36, no.4, pp.423-430, 2021 (ESCI)
© 2021, Turkish Society for Radiation Oncology.OBJECTIVE Breast cancer patients usually have psychological symptoms related with their perceptions of cancer. In our study, we aimed to investigate perception of illness, coping styles, and magical ideation of breast cancer patients, to compare their coping styles and magical ideation with healthy controls, and to investigate the relationships between these parameters. METHODS The study included 51 breast cancer patients and 79 people as control group. The Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) was given cancer patients and Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory and The Magical Ideation Scale (MIS) were given both patients and healthy controls. RESULTS IPQ-R personal control perception and treatment control mean scores were higher than the other subdimension scores. Personal attributions and luck have been reported as the primarily cause of illness by patients. MIS scores were higher in the control group than patients. Emotion-focused coping scores were significantly lower in the cancer group than control group. A significant positive correlation has been found between the emotion-focused coping and cognitive representations and causal attributions. CONCLUSION Understanding how patients perceive the disease, their causal attributions and coping styles provides useful information to psychiatrists in planning psychosocial interventions.