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Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Patients: Influences of Psychological Variables.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Yang, Y; Hendrix, CC
Published in: Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing
July 2018

Approximately 3.1 million women in the US are living with breast cancer and up to 75% of these women experience cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI). CRCI is described as impairments in memory, verbal fluency, thought processes, and attention span. Despite the high prevalence of breast cancer, only a few studies have been published on CRCI and most of these studies primarily focused on its pathophysiological mechanism. However, recent evidence has demonstrated that breast cancer patients with CRCI are more likely to have high level of psychologic distress, suggesting a possible relationship between CRCI and psychologic distress. This review aims to examine existing literature that describes CRCI in relation to psychological distress among breast cancer patients. One thousand four hundred and ninety-eight articles were searched using PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Thirteen studies met inclusion criteria, and one article was additionally pulled from article reference lists. Of these19 studies, psychologic distress has been operationalized in varied ways such as anxiety (n = 3), depression (n = 2), both anxiety and depression (n = 4), stress (n = 4), worry (n = 2), mental fatigue (n = 1), and undefined psychological distress (n = 2). Except for six studies designed as a longitudinal study, the rest of studies used a cross-sectional design. Twelve studies used both subjective and objective measures to assess cognitive function. We found that the patients with high psychological distress displayed lower performance on cognitive function tests. Our finding indicates that psychological variables contributed to CRCI that breast cancer patients experienced. Areas for further investigation are proposed that will advance the care of breast cancer patients with CRCI.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing

DOI

EISSN

2349-6673

ISSN

2347-5625

Publication Date

July 2018

Volume

5

Issue

3

Start / End Page

296 / 306

Related Subject Headings

  • 4205 Nursing
 

Citation

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Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
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Yang, Y., & Hendrix, C. C. (2018). Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Patients: Influences of Psychological Variables. Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing, 5(3), 296–306. https://doi.org/10.4103/apjon.apjon_16_18
Yang, Yesol, and Cristina C. Hendrix. “Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Patients: Influences of Psychological Variables.Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing 5, no. 3 (July 2018): 296–306. https://doi.org/10.4103/apjon.apjon_16_18.
Yang Y, Hendrix CC. Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Patients: Influences of Psychological Variables. Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing. 2018 Jul;5(3):296–306.
Yang, Yesol, and Cristina C. Hendrix. “Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Patients: Influences of Psychological Variables.Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing, vol. 5, no. 3, July 2018, pp. 296–306. Epmc, doi:10.4103/apjon.apjon_16_18.
Yang Y, Hendrix CC. Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in Breast Cancer Patients: Influences of Psychological Variables. Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing. 2018 Jul;5(3):296–306.

Published In

Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing

DOI

EISSN

2349-6673

ISSN

2347-5625

Publication Date

July 2018

Volume

5

Issue

3

Start / End Page

296 / 306

Related Subject Headings

  • 4205 Nursing