THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHALLENGES FACING MELANOMA PATIENTS
Section snippets
THE NEED FOR PROPORTION AND BALANCE
As mentioned above, the most adaptive emotional responses are proportional to the reality of one's illness. In principle, this means that a patient is not overly worried, upset, and preoccupied and also not overly cheerful or complacent. For purposes of discussion, which I will follow throughout this article, let us consider a patient with an average-risk melanoma (the average 5-year mortality threat posed by a primary, cutaneous melanoma is 17%; of course, many lesions are lower risk than
OBSTACLES TO PROPORTION AND BALANCE
It is a common experience for patients to be overly worried or upset, to deny or avoid legitimate negative emotions, or to vacillate between negative and positive emotions, often feeling in an overall quandary as to how they “should” feel. The right proportion and balance are often difficult to define or achieve for several reasons:
HOW PHYSICIANS CAN HELP
The most important rule of thumb is this: Physicians should adopt the same attitude about their patient's melanoma that would be optimally adaptive for the patient to adopt. This means that physicians should convey—in their attitude, demeanor, and the information they provide— both sides of the patient's medical situation: that the diagnosis poses a serious threat that must be taken seriously and the patient would understandably feel worried and upset; but also that chances of a full recovery
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One-Step Surgical Removal of a Cutaneous Melanoma: Current Evidence
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2011, Journal of the American Academy of DermatologyCitation Excerpt :Early diagnosis and treatment will usually result in cure and in markedly reduced functional loss and disfigurement. Further research is likely to improve understanding of delayed presentation for NMSC26-28 and melanoma skin cancer.29-37 Delayed treatment of NMSC may result in tumor enlargement, functional loss, and the need for larger excisions that may impact cosmetic and motor function.
Coping with melanoma - Ten strategies that promote psychological adjustment
2003, Surgical Clinics of North AmericaPsychological adjustment to the melanoma experience
2003, Seminars in Oncology NursingSkin lesion suspicious of melanoma: Time to one-step removal
2019, Journal of Primary Health CareDistress and coping strategies among patients with skin cancer
2013, Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings
Address reprint requests to Andrew W. Kneier, PhD, UCSF/Mount Zion Cancer Center, 2356 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
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From the Department of Psychosocial Oncology, the University of California, San Francisco, Mount Zion Cancer Center, San Francisco, California