Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec 17;17(24):9452.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17249452.

Personality Profiles and Psychological Adjustment in Breast Cancer Patients

M Victoria Cerezo  1 , María J Blanca  1 , Marta Ferragut  1
Affiliations

Personality Profiles and Psychological Adjustment in Breast Cancer Patients

M Victoria Cerezo et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Dispositional personality characteristics may play a role in psychosocial adjustment to any disease, including cancer.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify personality profiles in breast cancer patients and to determine whether these profiles are associated with psychological adjustment or psychopathology.

Methods: Participants were 109 women (mean age, 52.01) diagnosed with breast cancer. They completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Scales.

Results: The analysis revealed two different personality profiles: (a) one group, comprising 38.23% of the sample, was characterized by paranoid, negativistic, and dependent personality traits and was considered as a "vulnerable group"; and (b) another group (61.77%) was characterized by compulsive, histrionic, and narcissistic personality traits and was considered as a "psychologically adjusted group". The vulnerable group scored higher than the psychologically adjusted group on all clinical syndromes, with scores above 60 on the anxiety, somatoform, dysthymic, and bipolar scales (score on anxiety being above 75); in contrast, the psychologically adjusted group did not reach a base rate score of 60 on any of the clinical syndromes, showing no manifestations of psychopathology. Additionally, the vulnerable group scored lower than the psychologically adjusted group on optimism, life satisfaction, and positive affect, but higher on negative affect.

Conclusions: The results suggest that personality traits could affect the psychological adjustment of breast cancer survivors. We discuss the implications of belonging to each group and highlight the importance of early identification of vulnerable women in order to facilitate clinical and psychological support.

Keywords: MCMI; breast cancer; clinical syndromes; personality; psychological profile; well-being.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cluster dendrogram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Heron M. Statistics system deaths: Leading causes for 2017. [(accessed on 16 December 2020)];Natl. Vital Stat. Rep. 2019 68:1–77. Available online: https://www.cdc.gov/women/lcod/2017/all-races-origins/index.htm. - PubMed
    1. Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica (SEOM) Las Cifras del Cáncer en España [Cancer Figures in Spain] SEOM; Madrid, Spain: 2020. [(accessed on 16 December 2020)]. Available online: https://seom.org/prensa/el-cancer-en-cifras.
    1. Ferlay J., Colombet M., Soerjomataram I., Mathers C., Parkin D.M., Piñeros M., Znaor A., Bray F. Estimating the global cancer incidence and mortality in 2018: GLOBOCAN sources and methods. Int. J. Cancer. 2019;144:1941–1953. doi: 10.1002/ijc.31937. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bray F., Ferlay J., Soerjomataram I., Siegel R.L., Torre L.A., Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J. Clin. 2018;68:394–424. doi: 10.3322/caac.21492. - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (WHO) In: World Cancer Report 2014. Stewart B.W., Wild C.P., editors. WHO; Lyon, France: 2014. [(accessed on 16 December 2020)]. Available online: https://www.who.int/cancer/publications/WRC_2014/en/