2Department of Mental Health and Diseases, Hacettepe University, Ankara-Turkey DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2021.2642 OBJECTIVE
Breast cancer patients usually have psychological symptoms related with their perceptions of cancer. In our study, we aimed to investigate perception of illness, coping styles, and magical ideation of breast cancer patients, to compare their coping styles and magical ideation with healthy controls, and to investigate the relationships between these parameters.
METHODS
The study included 51 breast cancer patients and 79 people as control group. The Revised Illness Perception
Questionnaire (IPQ-R) was given cancer patients and Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced
Inventory and The Magical Ideation Scale (MIS) were given both patients and healthy controls.
RESULTS
IPQ-R personal control perception and treatment control mean scores were higher than the other subdimension
scores. Personal attributions and luck have been reported as the primarily cause of illness
by patients. MIS scores were higher in the control group than patients. Emotion-focused coping scores
were significantly lower in the cancer group than control group. A significant positive correlation has
been found between the emotion-focused coping and cognitive representations and causal attributions.
CONCLUSION
Understanding how patients perceive the disease, their causal attributions and coping styles provides
useful information to psychiatrists in planning psychosocial interventions.