Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In Patients With Cancer: Incidence And Determinant Factors.

Abstract

Introduction.Post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSDs) have been established to occur after traumatic events in life such as cancer announcement.Goals.Our study sought to evaluate the prevalence but also identify the determining factors of PTSDs in Morocco patients after cancer announcement. Methods.Patients submitted to PCL5 questionnaire, seeking PTSDs criteria.Results.For the 93 cases (59 women, 34 men; mean age: 59 years) included in the study and suffering for diverse cancer types, the threshold of 38 in the PCL5 scale, indicative of the presence of PTSDs was equaled or exceeded in 41 patients (38.4 %).On the other hand, the statistical analysis was not able to exhibit any correlation between age, sex, marital status, type of cancer, delay of cancer, or type of treatment and PTSDs. Conclusion.PTSDs are frequent after cancer announcement in our context, with no evident precipitant factor.The results of our study raise up the need for appropriate therapeutic support in this patients populations.