Elsevier

Geriatric Nursing

Volume 26, Issue 3, May–June 2005, Pages 166-175
Geriatric Nursing

Psychosocial consequences of prostate cancer: 30 years of research

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2005.05.001Get rights and content

Carcinoma of the prostate is the leading source of solid-organ cancer in U.S. men. When the disease is discovered early, survival rates are high; survivorship, however, is commonly complicated by disease-specific treatment side effects that challenge a man's physical, mental, and social well-being and life satisfaction. This review comprises a search of scientific literature published between 1970 and March 2004 with the aims of 1) identifying the terms used to define the psychosocial consequences unique to men treated for prostate cancer and 2) describing the research aimed at improving the lives of survivors through psychosocial interventions.

Section snippets

Background

The physical, psychological, and social dimensions of human behavior and functioning that are targeted to improving or maintaining quality of life (QOL) in specific domains are interrelated.6 Although “QOL” is a broad term (see Hunt7 for a more detailed description), in the context of this review it represents an individual's response to the physical, mental, and social effects of illness that significantly influence the extent to which he can achieve satisfaction with his life circumstances.8

Search strategy

We used 3 scientific databases to conduct an electronic search of the health sciences literature for English-language scientific reports of original research specific to prostate cancer in humans: PubMed, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and PsychInfo. Our search spanned the range of each database: 1966–March 2004 in PubMed, 1982–March 2004 in CINAHL, and 1887–March 2004 in PsychInfo. Although we did not limit the search by date, articles on this subject

Results

The search terms “prostate cancer” AND (Boolean connector) “prostatectomy,” “radiotherapy,” or “androgen antagonists” resulted in more than 12,000 scientific reports for the years 1970 to 2004. The majority was in PubMed, with less than 1000 from CINAHL and PsychInfo combined. Many of the reports were duplicated among databases. After manual review, we removed the duplicates from our final analysis.

We then refined the search to exclude reports that were not relevant to psychosocial outcomes in

Discussion

Although the psychosocial sequelae of prostate cancer has been well studied and well described,10 the majority of psychosocial research into prostate cancer emerged during the past decade. All but a few of those reports focused on identifying and describing the experience men face in response to untoward reactions to the medical or surgical management of the disease. Noticeably absent were scientific reports that described the effect of intervention strategies aimed at improving the

Summary and implications

Prostate cancer survivors are living longer because of scientific advances in the treatment of the disease. Yet the descriptive research summarized here highlights a constellation of negative psychosocial outcomes that define cancer survivorship for men who undergo prostate cancer treatment. Because the focus of research was traditionally on the physical effects of the disease and its treatment, much of what we have learned in this arena has emerged only over the last decade. The findings of

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      In addition to a cancer diagnosis, men treated for prostate cancer are faced with several morbidities, including urinary and sexual dysfunction. These side effects commonly impact upon a man's social, mental, emotional and physical wellbeing (Albaugh and Hacker, 2008; Stanford et al., 2000; Weber and Sherwill-Navarro, 2005). The significant QoL impact not only appears to be associated with high levels of psychological distress but it also puts men at increased risk of developing a range of mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety (Couper et al., 2006; Wootten et al., 2007).

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    Support for this article provided in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute RO3CA96204.

    1

    BRYAN A. WEBER, ARNP, PhD, is affiliated with the Department of Adult and Elderly Nursing a the University of Florida College of Nursing in Gainesville, Florida.

    2

    PAMELA SHERWILL-NAVARRO, MLIS, AHIP, is affiliated with the Department of Adult and Elderly Nursing a the University of Florida College of Nursing in Gainesville, Florida.

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