Psychological coping and cancer

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7389.598/a

BMJ 2003;326:598 ( 15 March )

Letters

Psychological coping and cancer

Study results should not have been dismissed

Search strategy used is inadequate

Authors' reply

Study results should not have been dismissed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ The review by Petticrew et al is flawed.¹

Firstly, they do not compare like with like and ignore differing methods. Different instruments assess coping styles differentlyand may not be comparable. Thus conclusions cannot be drawn convincingly.Out of 28 studies, 13 had less than three years' follow up (shortesteight weeks). However, in relation to early breast cancer lessthan five years of follow up produces inconclusiveresults.

Secondly, our study was relegated to the realms of irrelevance by saying that the recent large UK study (n=578), while ofhigher quality, reported mixed findings: helplessness or hopelessnesspredicted recurrence when patients with high and low scores werecompared but not when it was the predominant coping style.²The main importance of our clearly stated findings concerninghelplessness and hopelessness was missed. Mixed findings werenotreported.

Although predominant coping style was arbitrarily defined, helplessness or hopelessness is robust across . . . [Full text of this article]