Psychosocial Assessment Of The Recovery From Mastectomy: A Comparison Of Static And Dynamic Modeling

Abstract The psychosocial functioning of women during the year following surgery for breast cancer was compared to women who had surgery for gall bladder disease, a negative breast biopsy or no surgery. An index measuring psychological functioning was developed from a battery of commonly used self report measures. Results indicated that relative to the non-surgical group, all three surgical groups had poorer psychological functioning after surgery: all but the mastectomy group were indistinguishable one year later. These findings are due to a lack of difference in rates of recovery; the dynamic model replicates the static model generally used in analyses of the impact of disease and its treatment. The results suggest that psychological intervention may continue to be important as time post-surgery increases when the immediate trauma has lessened as well as soon after surgery.