The Role of Dysfunctional Schemas and Acceptance Regarding Chronic Fatigue in Oncology Patients After Treatment

The Role of Dysfunctional Schemas and Acceptance Regarding Chronic Fatigue in Oncology Patients After Treatment

The role of dysfunctional schemas and acceptance regarding chronic fatigue in oncology patients after treatment

This scientific cross-sectional study is at the intersection of medical psychology and oncology and will address the role of dysfunctional schemas and acceptance in the development of fatigue symptoms after treatment for cancer.

Cancer is potentially a deadly disease, but early detection and modern available treatments have increased survival rates in recent decades. Increasing attention is being paid to the well-being of survivors. One of the side effects of long-term curative treatment of cancer, is chronic fatigue. Fatigue has a major impact on daily life and thus on the patient's quality of life.

This study deals with patients who still suffer from chronic fatigue 6 months to two years after (intentionally curative) cancer treatment. Defined in English as chronic cancer-related fatigue (CCRF). The role of acceptance and dysfunctional schedules in maintaining chronic fatigue after cancer will be investigated.

The question is whether oncology patients with dysfunctional schedules after treatment are more likely to maintain CCRF than oncology patients in whom these dysfunctional schedules are present to a lesser extent. From the literature, we chose to examine the dysfunctional schema Relentlessly strict standards/extremely high demands. Exploratively, we also examine the dysfunctional schemas Abandonment/Instability and Self-Sacrifice.

If the above schemas are indeed associated with higher levels of CCRF, we then ask what role acceptance of fatigue plays on the aforementioned correlation. We hypothesize that acceptance plays a mediating role in the correlation between dysfunctional schemas and fatigue: Dysfunctional schemas hinder acceptance of fatigue. Next, we hypothesize that the lower the degree of acceptance, the higher the perceived fatigue will be.

In addition to mediation, a moderating role of dysfunctional schemas could also be hypothesized. Therefore, the second hypothesis hypothesizes that there is a negative relationship between acceptance and fatigue, but only when the relevant dysfunctional schemas are present at low levels. When these dysfunctional schemas are present to a high degree, the relationship between acceptance and fatigue changes. Most likely, the dysfunctional schemas reduce the beneficial influence of acceptance.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All oncology patients (18 up to and including 70 years of age ), at least 6 months to no later than five years after the last curative treatment and have had no other oncology treatment thereafter (except hormone therapy). The type of oncology treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy or hormone therapy) and the type of cancer they have had are diverse. Subjects recruited should have a good command of the Dutch language in connection with optimal reading and answering of the questionnaires.

Exclusion Criteria:

Exclusion criteria for participation are a psychotic disorder and current substance dependence.