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Who Is at Risk for Psychological Distress in Genetic Testing Programs for Hereditary Cancer Disorders?
Author(s) -
Grosfeld Frans J. M.,
Lips Cees J. M.,
Beemer Frits A.,
Kroode Herman F. J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1023/a:1009468005966
Subject(s) - genetic counseling , genetic testing , disease , distress , medicine , hereditary cancer , cancer , clinical psychology , identification (biology) , public health , test (biology) , human genetics , psychiatry , psychology , genetics , pathology , biology , paleontology , botany , breast cancer , gene
Presymptomatic identification of disease gene carriers is becoming an increasingly common part of the clinical management of hereditary cancer disorders. With an expected increase in the number of requests for DNA testing and the limited resources for counseling, the amount of time genetic counselors are able to spend with test candidates will decrease. It is therefore important for counselors to identify persons at risk for psychological distress. Based on a review of experiences with Huntington disease and cancer patients, we describe factors likely to evoke distress in genetic cancer candidates. We also discuss the sometimes widely different ways that test candidates and their partners respond to genetic testing. By exploring risk factors for distress in relevant domains of the research, we can offer counselors guidelines for determining who may need extra counseling.