Quality of life and psychological functioning in postmenopausal women undergoing aromatase inhibitor treatment for early breast cancer
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- pone.0230681
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INTRODUCTION: Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) dramatically increased breast cancer (BC) survival, leading to enhanced attention to their long-term consequences on psychological functioning. Conflicting data has been examined regarding the association between AIs administration and the clinical psychological features in BC survivors (BCSs).
PURPOSE: As psychological symptoms often occur in such chronic diseases, our study aimed at exploring anxious and depressive symptoms and the perceived quality of life (QoL) in BCSs assessed for osteoporosis.
METHODS: The total sample consisted of a clinical sample of 51 outpatient postmenopausal women, diagnosed with BC, and a control group composed of 51 healthy postmenopausal women. All recruited participants were evaluated through the clinical gold standard interview and completed the following self-rating scales: the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Beck Depression Inventory II edition, and 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, which were administered at baseline and after 6 months in BCSs in AIs treatment, compared with controls. Moreover, all participants were assessed for vitamin D status, bone mineral density (BMD) and subclinical vertebral fractures. Data regarding age, age at menopause, body mass index (BMI), smoking habits and alcohol consumption was collected.
RESULTS: BCSs (n = 51) showed higher anxious and depressive symptoms, and lower perceived QoL vs. controls (n = 51) (p<0.05 for all). After 6 months of treatment with AIs, BCSs showed significant reduction of anxious and depressive symptoms and a significantly higher perceived QoL for both physical and mental components, vs. controls.
CONCLUSIONS: The improvement of clinical psychological features and perceived QoL was associated with AIs treatment in women being treated with, for early breast cancer. Further studies are needed to obtain a deeper comprehension of the correlation between clinical psychological and physical features in BCSs.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e0230681 |
Journal | PLoS ONE |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 3 |
Number of pages | 16 |
ISSN | 1932-6203 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
- Aged, Anxiety/pathology, Aromatase Inhibitors/therapeutic use, Body Mass Index, Bone Density, Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis, Case-Control Studies, Depression/pathology, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Middle Aged, Postmenopause, Psychometrics, Quality of Life, Severity of Illness Index, Vitamin D/blood
Research areas
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