The prevalence of death anxiety among patients with breast cancer

Breast cancer for many women is a horrific incident and makes the person encounter psychological and social challenges, including anxiety and particularly death anxiety. Among humankind, the most fundamental anxiety is death anxiety.1 Death anxiety seems to be the morbid, abnormal or constant fear of death. This concept is also referred to as thanatophobia (fear of death).2 While the disease and its related symptoms progress, patients with cancer in most cases are afraid of the mentioned dimensions of death anxiety. Therefore, this anxiety cannot only cause physical and mental disorders in the patients but also affect their quality of life. Thus, recognising and identifying factors that may have an impact on the quality of life of these patients sound essential. Like other forms of anxiety, death anxiety affects mental health, and this issue is of such great prominence that Langz and Yalom assert death anxiety is one of the most important issues raised in psychotherapy.3 So, the current study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of death anxiety among the patients with breast cancer referred to the hospitals in Ahvaz. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 118 women with breast cancer who referred to the health centres …