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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Mood Disorders

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1554128

MODELING OF DEMORALIZATION IN BREAST CANCER

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, United States
  • 2 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
  • 3 Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 4 University of Bologna, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study aimed at identifying correlates of demoralization in breast cancer.Information was obtained from outpatients with breast cancer at the Oncology Clinic of a university-affiliated hospital in the United States, using reliable and valid scales, and from the participants' medical records on demographic and social characteristics, location, type, and stage of cancer, whether it was a re-occurrence or first time diagnosed, type of cancer treatment, medications being used, history of mental disorder, functional impairment, perceived stress, perceived social support, resilience, subjective incompetence, demoralization, and depression. Demoralization was measured with the Demoralization Scale. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were conducted with demoralization as the dependent variable.Demoralization correlated positively with functional impairment, perceived stress, depression, and subjective incompetence, and negatively with months since diagnosed with breast cancer, perceived social support, resilience, and quality of life. Forward stepwise regression conducted without depression in the regression equation identified emotional wellbeing subscale of quality of life, resilience, subjective incompetence, perceived social support, and functional impairment as significant. After forced entry of depression, perceived social support and mild depression 2 ceased to be significant, leaving only moderate and severe depression as significant. Perceived stress did not enter any of the regression models.Early detection of demoralization and of the co-occurrence of depression and demoralization are essential for promoting the well-being of patients with breast cancer. Psychotherapy should focus on strengthening the modifiable negative correlates of demoralization, countering the modifiable positive correlates, and preventing the co-occurrence of demoralization and depression.

    Keywords: demoralization, breast cancer, oncology, Depression, Subjective incompetence, helplessness, Hopelessness

    Received: 01 Jan 2025; Accepted: 20 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 de Figueiredo, Kohn, Chung and Gostoli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: John de Figueiredo, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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