Pain, acceptance of illness, adjustment to life with cancer and coping strategies in prostate cancer patients

INTRODUCTION: Prostate cancer is the second most common type of carcinoma in men. The rate of prostate cancer has increased approximately fivefold lover the last 30 years. The purpose of the study was to evaluate coping strategies, pain management, illness acceptance, and adjustment to cancer in patients diagnosed with prostate carcinoma and the effect of socioeconomic variables on the above-mentioned issues. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 228 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. The questionnaire interview consisted of demographic questions and four psychometric tests: BPCQ, measuring the influence of factors affecting pain management, CSQ, designed to evaluate pain coping strategies, the AIS questionnaire, measuring disease acceptance, and the Mini-Mac. The most frequently indicated coping strategies were fighting spirit (mean score = 22.46) and positive re-evaluation (mean score = 22.04). CONCLUSIONS: The main belief about pain control in prostate cancer patients is that powerful others (doctors) control pain. The study patients cope with disease constructively. The main socioeconomic variables which differentiate the scores obtained across all tests are income and education.