Attachment Style Distress & Clinical Relationships in Ocular Melanoma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Is attachment style related to distress in ocular melanoma patients and is this relationship mediated by the quality of their relationships with clinicians?
IRAS ID
166160
Contact name
Steve Brown
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 29 days
Research summary
Patients with ocular melanoma (eye cancer - OM) are rapidly diagnosed and treated, yet face a high degree of uncertainty about their future. Many patients suffer significant distress at one year following diagnosis. Research with other groups of patients with cancer has shown that patients place great importance upon relationships with medical staff, good relationships with clinicians are important in reducing distress in patients living with other types of cancer, and the quality of these relationships influences patients’ experience of distress. However the literature gives little indication of how we can support individuals with OM to form effective relationships with clinical teams.
Attachment style is a determinant of relationship quality and satisfaction. Research with cancer patients has shown that clinical relationships may have properties in common with attachment relationships.
We suggest that the propensity of patients to experience supportive and trusting relationships with clinicians is dependent upon their attachment styles. Understanding patients’ attachment styles can allow us to identify patients who may experience difficulties forming high quality relationships with clinicians and to envisage possible ways of improving these relationships. It will be hypothesised that if individual patients do not perceive that their relationship with clinicians as a supportive and trusting one, they will experience more distress.
METHOD:
The method will be a cross-sectional survey and will require participants to complete self-report questionnaires measuring attachment style, perceptions of the quality of clinical relationships and distress, which should take approximately 30 minutes.SAMPLE:
Patients attending Liverpool Ocular Oncology Centre who are over 18 years of age and who have recently received diagnosis of, and treatment for ocular melanoma will be invited to take part in the study.REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0247
Date of REC Opinion
7 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion