Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The authors highlighted the importance of viewing cancer from a relationship perspective.
The model proposes that patients and their partners engage in behaviors that either promote or undermine the level of closeness in their relationship and that the closeness of the marital relationship is an important determinant of patient and partner psychologic adaptation to cancer. Of the 25 couples who consented to participate in the intervention and completed the preintervention surveys, 15 couples completed all 5 sessions, and 12 couples completed the follow-up survey.
The current results suggested that the intervention improved patient and partner perceptions of the closeness of their relationship and reduced their distress. Keywords: couples, cancer, psychosocial adjustment, intimacy, relationship processes, communication.
The diagnosis and treatment of cancer can be stressful and upsetting. Partners in particular cope with challenges, such as worry about the potential loss of their life partner and their ability to provide emotional and practical support to the patient.
For example, in the months after a new diagnosis, these stressors include negotiating changes in occupational and family roles, interference with future life plans, and managing household and childcare responsibilities. In this report, we also describe preliminary results from a couple-focused, intimacy-enhancing intervention for patients with early-stage breast cancer and their partners that provides initial empiric support for this new model, and we discuss strengths and weaknesses of the model as well as directions for future research.
