Discrepancies between attainment and importance of life values and anxiety and depression in gastrointestinal cancer patients and their spouses

Abstract

Patients' satisfaction with life, viewed in terms of the discrepancy between the perceived attainment and subjective importance of various life values, is a less often studied phenomenon for understanding the psychological adaptation in cancer patients. The main aim of the present study is to investigate the relation between the degree of attainment and importance of life values on the one hand, and anxiety and depression, on the other. A consecutive series of 85 newly diagnosed patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, 52 potentially cured and 33 with an advanced disease, and 26 spouses to the patients with an advanced disease participated. The patients and spouses of non-cured patients filled out questionnaires twice, close to the diagnosis and after 1 (non-cured patients) or 3 months. Overall, large discrepancies between the perceived attainment and importance of life values were associated with high anxiety and depression. For the patients (both cured and non-cured), the discrepancies decreased for several life values over time, as did anxiety and depression. For the spouses of the non-cured patients, there was no decrease either for life value discrepancies or for anxiety/depression. This suggests that patients, in contrast to their spouses, strive to achieve small discrepancies between the perceived attainment and importance of life values, as part of their adjustment to serious diseases, e.g. cancer.