Psychosocial reactions to the diagnosis of gynecologic cancer.

Data are presented on the psychosocial impact of gynecologic cancer derived from both a structured interview and self-report scales administered to 60 women newly diagnosed with cervical, uterine, and ovarian malignancies. Findings show that such women experience mild to moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as impairment of vocational, domestic, and sexual functioning. The women with cancer reported significantly fewer symptoms of depression and social impairment than acutely depressed women without cancer. The women studied also demonstrated significantly more symptoms of depression and social impairment than women without psychiatric disease from randomly selected community samples. The symptoms of depression experienced by women with ovarian cancer, women receiving triple-agent chemotherapy and women with poorly differentiated tumors of the endometrium and ovary approached the level of acute symptoms typically reported by women entering outpatient psychiatric clinics. These observations should enhance the understanding of these problems among gynecologists and other health care providers in offering appropriate psychosocial support for women with gynecologic cancer.