Posttreatment Anxiety, Depression, Sleep Disorders, and Associated Factors in Women Who Survive Breast Cancer

Abstract

Objective: Breast Cancer Survivors (BCSs) experience negative effects on their physical and mental health, including sleep disorders, after the completion of treatment and over the whole spectrum of survival. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of posttreatment anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders exhibited by women who have survived breast cancer. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with a population of 170 BCSs, who were monitored as outpatients by two surgical departments of a central Athens hospital for between one and five–5 years after completing their therapy. The data were collected between November 2019 and March 2020 and included demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as the Athens Insomnia Scale to measure sleep disorders and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to assess the incidence of mental disorders. Results: The majority of the patients were aged 61–70 years (41.4%), married (56.9%), with two children (56.3%), and graduates of higher education (41.8%). Of the total population, 53.5% had sleep disorders, 29.4% anxiety, and 18.2% depression. Insomnia had a moderately positive correlation with both anxiety and depression (r = 0.598, P < 0.001 and r = 0.584, P < 0.001, respectively), while a strongly positive correlation was found between depression and anxiety (r = 0.683, P < 0.001). Sleep disorders were associated with factors such as profession (P < 0.001), income (P = 0.01), the number of minor children (P = 0.021), and the number of pathological problems (P = 0.003); anxiety was related to the number of minor children (P = 0.008) and the use of drug therapy to treat mental disorders (P = 0.038); while for depression, the relevant factors were the duration of treatment (P = 0.029), the number of minor children (P < 0.001), the use of medication for treatment of mental disorders (P = 0.008), and sleep disorders (P = 0.003). Conclusions: Women who have survived breast cancer in Greece show a high rate of anxiety and depression related to the disease, as well as sleep problems that are partly associated with their psychological status, but are also affected by parameters such as income, type of profession, and the presence of minor children in the household.

Keywords

• anxiety
• breast cancer survivors
• depression
• sleep disorders