Mental disorders in patients with female reproductive system malignancies: a review of literature

Abstract

The problem of mental disorders in oncological practice is discussed in many publications. To study the prevalence and spectrum of men- tal health disorders in patients with cancer of the female reproductive system (CFRS) is one of the most urgent issues of psycho-oncology. This paper gives an excursus into the problem of mental disorders in patients with CFRS and points out a diversity of the psychopathologi- cal phenomena that have been described in the literature and are encountered in this category of patients, as ascribed by a number of investigators to the presence of somatogenic conditions that complicate the pattern of the stress factors that are traditionally identified in oncological practice, the most important factors of them are hormonal derangements resulting from damaging operations (mastectomy, hysterectomy, etc.) and hormone therapy performed in CFRS patients with preserved menstrual function.

Keywords

• psycho-oncology
• mental disorders
• cancer of the female reproductive system