Illness Perception, Emotional Regulation Shape Mental Health in Patients With Lung Cancer

New research highlights the interconnected emotional experiences of patients with lung cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy and their caregivers, underscoring the importance of addressing dyadic posttraumatic growth in thoracic oncology through psychosocial care and nursing interventions.

A team of researchers from the Chengdu Medical College School of Nursing in China conducted the study and published their findings in Nursing Research and Practice. The research “aimed to investigate the dyadic relationship between illness perception, emotion regulation strategies, and posttraumatic growth among patients and their caregivers in this population.”

The study used a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based approach, and the investigators collected data from 332 pairs of patients with lung cancer undergoing chemotherapy and their family caregivers. Eligible participants completed three questionnaires, including the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory.

The researchers further explained that they leveraged “actor-partner interdependence effects” when analyzing the questionnaires to determine the relationship between illness perception, emotional regulation strategies, and posttraumatic growth.

According to the results, “both illness perception and emotion regulation strategies had significant actor and partner effects on posttraumatic growth” among both patients undergoing chemotherapy and their familial caregivers.

In addition, the study team stratified emotion regulation strategies by “cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.” The findings revealed that patients with lung cancer scored higher than their caregivers within the cognitive reappraisal scoring framework.

When assessing the data through patient-caregiver dyads, the investigators determined that “cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with posttraumatic growth in themselves and each other, whereas both illness perception and expressive suppression were negatively associated with posttraumatic growth.”

The researchers also compared patients’ and caregivers’ scores among the categories of posttraumatic growth, illness perception, and expressive suppression and found that patients expressed lower scores than their caregivers across these categories.

In reflecting on the results, the investigators explained that “healthcare professionals should view lung cancer chemotherapy patients and their family caregivers as a whole and develop dyadic interventions” to assist across a variety of health-related domains during treatment.

“Reducing negative illness perceptions and expressive suppression may promote posttraumatic growth in patients with lung cancer undergoing chemotherapy and their family caregivers,” the investigators concluded. “Facilitating cognitive reappraisal may be useful in enhancing posttraumatic growth, which provides direction for future intervention research.”