Cancer in married couples: higher or lower distress?

This study focuses on the question of what occurs when both spouses become seriously ill. Our hypothesis was that psychological distress in married couples involving two ill partners is far higher than when only one partner is ill. The study group comprised 20 married couples, in which both spouses were diagnosed with cancer. Two comparison groups were also studied: 20 married couples with the husband diagnosed with cancer, and 20 couples with the wife diagnosed with cancer. All patients in the three groups completed four self-report scales: the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI); the Perceived Family Support (PFS); the Impact of Events Scale (IES); and the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC). The healthy spouses completed only the first three scales. Our findings supported the null hypothesis--that is, that the psychological distress in married couples with both partners diagnosed with cancer was not significantly different than when only one partner had cancer. Our findings also showed that neither sociodemographic background, medical condition, nor family support affect patient distress. Gender differences were found with Intrusiveness contributing to the distress of male, but not female, patients. This study confirms and augments earlier work, and shows that partners of cancer patients report a high degree of distress, with this level of distress not being much different from that of the patients.