Background: Cancer has to become the scariest disease and tends to reduce the quality of life of the patient. Therefore, it is not only a medical treatment that needs to be conducted but also a psychological treatment.
Aim: to analyse the relationship between affective psychopathology and the quality of life of breast cancer patients who are receiving radiotherapy treatment.
Methods: This research was a correlative analytical study with a cross-sectional approach using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) instrument to assess psychopathological features and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) to determine the quality of life. This research was conducted in March 2016-July 2016 at Vina Estetika Cancer Center Hospital, Medan, Indonesia. As many as 47 subjects were divided into two criteria; Inclusion criteria, participants with breast cancer who were undergoing radiotherapy, aged over 18 years, with HADS score ≥ 17, and the exclusion criteria, were patients suffering from chronic psychiatry diseases.
Results: Affective psychopathology was indicated to result in a significant negative correlation with the quality of life of breast cancer patients which whom were treated with radiotherapy with p = 0.035 and r = -0.267. This suggests that with a higher HADS, a decrease in quality of life will occur.
Conclusions: Affective psychopathological comorbidities have a great influence on the quality of life of patients who are undergoing radiotherapy. Thus, cancer management must include screening for psychopathological morbidity. Moreover, psychological rehabilitation must also be provided along with the cancer treatment.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Hospital anxiety and depression scale; Psychopathology.