Clinically assessed posttraumatic stress in patients with breast cancer during the first year after diagnosis in the prospective, longitudinal, controlled COGNICARES study

Objective There is ongoing debate whether cancer qualifies as traumatic stressor. We investigated prevalence and course of posttraumatic stress in patients with early breast cancer (BC) during their first year after diagnosis and determined effects of mastectomy and chemotherapy. Methods Patients with stage 0–III BC aged ≤65 years were evaluated with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV modules for acute and posttraumatic stress disorder (ASD and PTSD, respectively) before treatment, after chemotherapy, and 1 year after diagnosis. Matched controls were assessed at matched intervals. Effects of time, mastectomy, and chemotherapy on BC-related PTSD symptom severity were tested with linear mixed model analysis. Results Stress disorder (ASD or PTSD) related to BC was diagnosed in 6 (3.6%) of 166 patients before treatment and in 3 patients (2.0%) 1 year later. The rate of patients who experienced PTSD symptoms related to BC decreased from 82.5 to 57.3% (p