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Article: Cancer & coping styles.(Shorts)
- Article from:
- Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
- Article date:
- July 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Townsend Letter Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Urging cancer patients to have a positive mental outlook may do more harm than good. Dr. Jimmie Holland, a psychiatrist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, says that people have individual coping styles that help them get through stressful situations. Some people focus on activity and problem-solving. Others employ a fighting spirit. Some use stoic acceptance and fatalism. Helplessness/hopelessness, denial or avoidance, even anxiety, can be coping mechanisms. No reliable evidence has shown that any one of these coping mechanisms increases or decreases survival time or cancer recurrence. (Addressing anxiety and depression, however, may improve quality of life.) Dr. ...