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Cancer‐related trauma, stigma and growth: the ‘lived’ experience of head and neck cancer
Author(s) -
Threader J.,
McCormack L.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
european journal of cancer care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1365-2354
pISSN - 0961-5423
DOI - 10.1111/ecc.12320
Subject(s) - disfigurement , distress , medicine , superordinate goals , stigma (botany) , posttraumatic growth , head and neck cancer , interpretative phenomenological analysis , social stigma , clinical psychology , psychological distress , psychology , mental health , cancer , social psychology , psychiatry , surgery , qualitative research , social science , family medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , sociology
Head and neck cancer is associated with multiple layers of distress including stigma. Stigma attraction or devalued social identity is twofold: (1) it is a cancer associated with lifestyle risk factors and (2) treatment often results in confronting facial disfigurement. Subjective interpretations from nine head and neck cancer patients were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. An overarching superordinate theme – Distress , Stigma and Psychological Growth – encompassed four subordinate themes. Two themes captured the expressed trauma and terror as a result of diagnosis and treatment, and two the redefining of self despite stigma through meaning making. Distress was interpreted as a catalyst for awakening new life interpretations and combined with social support to facilitate two distinct pathways of growth: (1) psychological growth without support; (2) psychological and relational growth with support. Previously unfelt empathetic understanding and altruism for others with cancer emerged from the impact of stigma on ‘self’. Acceptance allowed a new sense of identity that recognised cancer‐related traumatic distress as integral to growth for these participants. The present study offers a unique insight into cancer‐related trauma and stigma and the potential to redefine a more accepting, empathic and altruistic ‘self’ for psychological growth. Implications are discussed.