Depression, Anxiety and Stress in Young Adult Breast Cancer WomenPaperback, 2 June 2011

Depression, anxiety and stress often coincides with breast cancer and adjuvant therapy treatments. Despite breast cancer is primarily a woman's disease, there is little attention paid to describe these treatment side-effects experienced by young adult breast cancer women. Thus, highlighting young breast cancer women depression, anxiety, and stress level during adjuvant therapy treatment is crucial. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the association between ages or the time after initial diagnosis and the level of depression, anxiety and stress among young adult breast cancer women. This is a descriptive study on young adult breast cancer (BC) women undergoing adjuvant therapy in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM). Data was collected by self-administered questionnaire. A total of 21.6% (n=11) young breast cancer women undergoing adjuvant therapy experienced depression, 51% (n=25) with anxiety, and 11.8% (n=6) of the young adult breast cancer women with stress. Study shows that more than 10% of young adult BC women suffered from depression, anxiety and stress. These results suggest that young adult BC women are affected by psychological burden.