Going beyond social support: Fear of receiving compassion from others predicts depression symptoms in breast cancer patients

Abstract

Background: Recent studies have highlighted the importance of being able to receive compassion and affiliative signals from others. The main aim of the present study was to explore whether social support and fear of receiving compassion from others are predictors of depression symptoms in a sample of breast cancer patients.

Methods: The sample included 86 female patients with non-metastatic breast cancer. Participants were recruited at a Radiotherapy Service in central Portugal and completed validated self-report instruments. Multiple regression analysis were conducted to examine the predictive effects of clinical (cancer stage, comorbidities) and demographic variables (age, education), social support, and fear of receiving compassion from others on depressive symptoms.

Results: Fear of receiving compassion from others was the only significant predictor of the model, with a positive effect on depression symptomatology (β = 0.44; p < 0.001). These results suggest that the amount of supportive social contacts and networks may not be as important as cancer patients' ability to receive compassion from others.

Conclusions: This is the first study to focus on fear of receiving compassion from others in cancer patients and seems to be a significant contribution for the study of the social factors that may be associated with depression in breast cancer. Psychological screening interviews in breast cancer, besides assessing patients' level of depression and social support, ought to also evaluate the ability to receive empathy and emotional help and support from other people.

Keywords: breast cancer; depression; fear of compassion; psycho-oncology; social support.