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The interplay between emotion regulation, emotional well‐being, and cognitive functioning in brain tumor patients and their caregivers: An exploratory study
Author(s) -
Aerts Hannelore,
Van Vrekhem Tineke,
Stas Lara,
Marinazzo Daniele
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
psycho‐oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.41
H-Index - 137
eISSN - 1099-1611
pISSN - 1057-9249
DOI - 10.1002/pon.5195
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , cognition , cognitive reappraisal , psychology , quality of life (healthcare) , clinical psychology , emotional expression , cognitive skill , intervention (counseling) , exploratory research , developmental psychology , psychotherapist , psychiatry , sociology , anthropology
Objective Brain tumor patients may suffer from a range of health‐impairing problems reducing their quality of life. To identify potential targets for interventions, we examined the influence of different emotion regulation strategies on affective and cognitive functioning as indices of quality of life in patients and their caregivers in the early phase of treatment. Methods To this end, we conducted an exploratory longitudinal study on a small cohort, measuring emotion regulation, emotional well‐being, and cognitive functioning on the day before each patient's tumor resection (28 patients and 11 caregivers) and several months after neurosurgery (22 patients and 10 caregivers). Results Results showed that emotion regulation strategies are relatively stable from preoperative to postoperative assessment. Nevertheless, several associations between emotion regulation strategies and quality of life indices were evident after tumor resection. In particular, our results were largely in line with previous research findings in healthy and other patient populations, corroborating the adaptive character of cognitive reappraisal, whereas suppression and expression of emotions were related to reduced cognitive and affective functioning, respectively. Conclusions Based on these results, we suggest that further intervention or qualitative studies explore whether therapeutic interventions directed toward mastery of cognitive reappraisal techniques and appropriate expression of emotions could lead to improved long‐term adjustment among brain tumor patients and their caregivers.