BMJ 1996;313:360-361 (10 August)

Letters

Psychological support for patients having breast cancer surgery

Study had methodological flaws

EDITOR,--June M C McArdle and colleagues' study suggests that support from a breast care nurse can significantly reduce psychological morbidity in women having surgery for breast cancer.1 We wish to draw attention to several methodological points.

The authors state that psychological morbidity is common in women after surgery for breast cancer and that support from a breast care nurse is the most effective intervention in reducing this morbidity. The women randomised to receive support from the breast care nurse seem, however, to have begun to receive that support before the surgery took place and before any baseline measures were made. This may partly explain why, when the first questionnaires were completed after surgery, the group receiving support from the breast care nurse alone had lower scores on the general health questionnaire and the hospital anxiety and depression scale than did the other groups. It is unclear . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Psychological support for patients undergoing breast cancer surgery: a randomised study
June M C McArdle, W David George, Colin S McArdle, David C Smith, Alastair R Moodie, A V Mark Hughson, and Gordon D Murray
BMJ 1996 312: 813-816. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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