Longitudinal analysis of psychological adaptation among family members of patients with cancer.

A growing body of research suggests that a cancer diagnosis reverberates throughout the family system. The majority of studies provide evidence of the psychological distress experienced by family members at the time of diagnosis and during terminal and early bereavement stages. Increasingly, however, patients survive a cancer diagnosis. Therefore, their experience and that of family members more closely approximates living with a chronic illness. In this longitudinal study of 143 pairs of patients and significant others it was found that a substantial minority of significant others experienced psychological distress up to one year after the patient's initial diagnosis. The psychologically vulnerable group of significant others included an initially poor functioning group who remained so over time as well as a group whose mental health status declined over time. Personal and social resources were more important factors in declining mental health than illness-related factors.