Posttraumatic growth and related factors among relatives, caring for cancer patients. Systematic review (Part 2)

Abstract

Caring for cancer patients can have not only negative impact on the informal caregivers, but can also be a source of positive personality transformations in the challenging situation associated with cancer.Aim: identification and synthesis of data on posttraumatic growth (PTG) and socio-demographic, clinical and psychological factors associated with PTG in relatives, caring for patients with cancer.Methods: The review was conducted according to the statement of the PRISMA guidelines. The review used 2 search strategies: systematic electronic search in databases (Pubmed, Google Scholar, Cochrane, EBSCO, SAGE journals и eLIBRARY), manual search of articles in references lists of eligible articles.Results: Psychological factors are crucial in development of PTG. Perceived social support (especially within the family) and constructive emotion- and problem-focused coping (such as positive reframing coping) are among the factors contributing to the PTG. The data on the positive relationship of with the severity of stressful experiences and emotional distress among caregivers predominate in the analyzed studies. At the same time, there is a lack of agreement on the contribution of psychological distress to the development of PTG.Conclusion: Development of supportive social environment, constructive coping strategies training, increase of family satisfaction, work with existential and spiritual values, and creation of psychological readiness of caring relatives for loss in case of negative prognosis for patients’ survival should be considered as the main directions of psychological interventions aimed at facilitating PTG in relatives caring for cancer patients.

Keywords

• posttraumatic growth
• informal caregivers
• cancer
• factors associated with posttraumatic growth
• systematic review