Coping and adapting to breast cancer: a six-month prospective study

To compare ways of coping with breast cancer in acute and chronic periods and to approach their efficiency on psychological adaptation at each time.

Psychometric evaluation of 151 breast cancer women the day before surgery (T1), and of 107 of them 6 months later (T2), with self-rated questionnaires (CHIP Scale, HADS), "t Student" tests, correlation analyses and multiple regression analyses.

The coping scores during the chronic period are related to those observed during the acute period, with a decrease of instrumental strategies and a stability of distraction and palliative coping. Relationships between CHIP and HADS plead for a deleterious impact of palliative coping on the mood in T2 and for a mood protecting effect of distraction in T1 and T2, without impact on anxiety and without effect of the instrumental coping. These hypotheses must take into account the fact that CHIP scores could be ambiguous measures assessing not only coping modes but also adaptation levels.