Background & Aims: Breast cancer is a critical and potentially traumatic experience and one of the most common and serious problems in women's health. Cancer is a physical disease in which cancer cells stop multiplying and do not grow in a controlled manner. Cancer is one of the fundamental problems in the field of health and treatment all over the world, It is considered the third cause of death and the second most chronic non-communicable disease in the world, as a regular and continuous process, creates challenges in the lives of affected people. It creates many problems for a person. According to the increasing trend of cancer, it is predicted that the incidence of cancer will reach more than 28 million people in the next two decades with a 47% increase compared to 2020. Breast cancer is one of the main causes of cancer-related death in women all over the world. Cancer is associated with mental stress and negative emotions of anxiety. According to this, the current research was conducted with the aim of comparing emotion regulation, emotional control and rumination in women with and without cancer.
Methods: This causal-comparative research was conducted with the aim of comparing emotion regulation, emotional control, and rumination in women with and without breast cancer. The statistical population of the present study included all patients diagnosed with breast cancer from Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran. The sample of this research consisted of 40 women with breast cancer who were selected purposefully. First, a list of 134 breast cancer patients was prepared. Then 100 people were selected from among them in a targeted manner, and out of these 100 people, 40 people cooperated and participated in the research, with 40 people from the general population who had Demographic characteristics (age, sex, education and marital status) were comparable with the affected subjects, provided they were not diagnosed with breast cancer or any other type of disease. The criteria for leaving the research were age below 30 years and above 65 years, a history of damage to the central nervous system during the past year, and mental disorders requiring immediate treatment (such as psychotic symptoms and drug addiction). The research tools were Garnevsky's Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, 2006, Hallen Hoeksma's Rumination Questionnaire, 1991, and Williams' Emotional Control Questionnaire, 1997. The statistical method of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data.
Results: The variable of rumination (examination, preoccupation, and depression) had a significant difference between the normal and patient groups (p<0.001 and F=5.19). There is a significant difference between the normal group and the patient group in terms of expression (p<0.01 and f=7.71), in the thought of depression (p<0.01 and f=10.57). There is a significant difference between the normal and sick groups in terms of anger (p<0.05 and f=5.65), depressed mood (p<0.01 and f=4.07), and anxiety (p<0.01 and f=12.84). There is. between normal and sick groups at least in terms of one of the dependent variables of emotion regulation (self-blame, acceptance, focus on rumination, positive refocus, refocus on planning, positive reevaluation, perspective taking, catastrophizing and other blame) there is a significant difference (p<0.001 and F=5.06) so the first hypothesis is confirmed. The amount of difference or influence is equal to 0.375%; That is, 37.5 percent of the individual difference in scores between the two groups is related to group membership. On the other hand, statistical power was obtained for group 1, which indicates that there is no possibility of type 1 error and the sample size is sufficient.
Conclusion: Different types of psychopathology, mental health issues and problems, disruption in interpersonal relationships and mental health performance, and physical problems and other diseases can be considered as the result of not regulating emotions. According to the data of pain theory, the descending and central pain of neurons can be changed by positive and negative emotional data. Negative emotions increase pain and positive emotions reduce pain intensity. Therefore, according to this theory, positive and negative emotions may indirectly play a role in pain management, because negative emotions increase pain, and vice versa, positive emotions reduce the intensity and severity of pain. Therefore, according to This theory suggests that positive and negative emotions may indirectly play a role in pain management. Depressed mood in women with breast cancer is significantly higher than normal people. In the explanation of this result, it can be stated that the depressed mood is based on separating from inaccessible motivations and incentives and being open to new stimuli, it is predicted that the depressed mood is an adaptive part of the process of separating the person from the driver. Depressed mood is common among cancer patients, and according to the American Cancer Society, one out of every four cancer patients has depression. As a result, it can be said that physical, mental, and emotional problems in patients can be an important factor in increasing rumination in these patients. Usually, the mechanisms created by rumination are risk factors for mental problems, such as the reduction of social support and optimism in people and the increase of neuroticism. Therefore, knowing and being aware of this topic can help people's mental health. The results showed that there is a significant difference between emotion regulation, emotional control, and rumination in women with and without breast cancer. Positive emotion regulation is lower in women with breast cancer. Rumination is more common in women with breast cancer. Anger, anxiety, and depressed mood are significantly more in women with breast cancer. But there was no significant difference in terms of positive emotion.