Fear of recurrence: a case report of a woman breast cancer survivor with GAD treated successfully by CBT

Abstract

General anxiety disorder (GAD) characterized by persistent, excessive and unrealistic worry about everyday things can affect everybody, including cancer patient survivor.In this paper, we present a case report of a breast cancer survivor with GAD treated by cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), who was excessively worried about recurrence of the disease 2 years after the end of any treatment. Cognitive reframing, associated to behavioural exposure and relaxation, were used in order to treat this woman. We describe precisely how the therapy was conducted. Results showed a substantial improvement of the fear of recurrence which 'naturally' extended to other stressful situations not worked during the therapy. Actually, these results are encouraging since it showed that CBT can be efficient in complicated situation involving survivor of a serious disease like cancer who additionally suffers from an anxiety disorder. It also underlines how it is important to be concerned by the distress of cancer survivors.