Habitual thinking and resilience in breast cancer survivors
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding how habitual thinking affects resilience in breast cancer survivors
IRAS ID
148937
Contact name
Colette Hirsch
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 5 days
Research summary
The aim of this research is to investigate why individuals who completed primary treatment for breast cancer vary in psychological resilience once primary treatment for breast cancer is concluded. One part of the answer may relate to the way individuals habitually process cancer-related information that is personally salient and threatening.
Most women who are diagnosed with breast cancer worry about their health, effects of treatment and preventing the spread of cancer. Usually these worries pass, but some women find it difficult to control their worry and experience greater distress. These women describe their concerns as being a problem for them in their day-to-day life. We want to find out how women who bounce back after treatment for breast cancer differ from women whose concerns impact on their daily functioning and well-being.
Women who completed primary treatment for breast cancer within the previous 12-months will be recruited for this study through clinics at Guy’s, Lewisham, Queen Elizabeth and King’s hospitals. Advertisements will also be made available through websites associated with Breast Cancer Care. Participants who give consent will be asked to complete a series of questionnaires and attend a 2-hour computerised assessment to understand how they habitually think about cancer-related information.
Extensive research in thinking style (cognitive processing) of emotional information suggests highly distressed individuals have a number of habits that promote distress: a habit to attend to threat (attentional bias); a habit to interpret this information negatively (interpretation bias); difficulty switching attention away from threat (attentional control); difficulty shifting mental focus in response to changing demands (cognitive flexibility); and more frequent distractions from unrelated events (e.g. such as intrusive thoughts). This research will be the first to assess the way in which psychologically resilient and non-resilient cancer survivors process cancer-related information and the extent to which any differences promote resilience.
REC name
London - Dulwich Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0266
Date of REC Opinion
24 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion