Estresse, emoções e câncer de mama: relações possíveis

Abstract

Cancers, or malignant neoplasms, have become one of the main diseases that women suffer from, both in Brazil and worldwide and accounts for many deaths among adult women. By means of a four-pronged approach involving psychosomatic medicine, psycho-oncology, psychoneuro-immunology and psycho-analysis, an exploratory study was designed whose general aim was to focus on the role that emotions such as fear, grief and depression play in the life-stories of women diagnosed with breast cancer and the participation of these emotions as probable psychic stress catalysts in the development of neoplasms. The sample was composed of 15 women diagnosed with breast cancer and who received chemiotherapy and/or psychological therapy (in groups) at the Federal University Hospital of Juiz de Fora (HU/UFJF) and Ascomcer (Female Association for the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer in Juiz de Fora). The case studies confirmed the existence of difficult life-situations which resulted in conflicting emotions and affections, including fear and unresolved grief, during the period in which breast cancer was discovered. All the women interviewed reported symptoms of stress and physiological alterations during the period in which they experienced situations of emotional conflict. Fear, in the form of fearful expectations, and unresolved grief, frequently accompanied by deep sadness and episodes of depression, permeated almost all the reports which suggests a strong link between these emotions and the development of physiological reactions leading to illness.