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Published VersionCC BY-NC V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
When good news are not enough: Predicting trauma-related symptoms and non-specific distress after negative and positive breast biopsy results
International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, Vol.25(4), pp.1-9
2025
Appears in Thompson Institute Research Collection
Abstract
The disclosure of breast biopsy results, whether indicating cancer (positive) or not (negative), can be experienced as a psychologically distressing event and could involve perceived threat to life. As peritraumatic distress is a predictor of post-event psychological symptoms, its investigation in the context of breast cancer screening could improve early identification of individuals at risk for persistent distress. This study first examined the proportion of individuals exceeding the clinical threshold for post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and non-specific distress (DT) at 7 days and 1-month post-biopsy results. It then tested whether peritraumatic distress experienced at the time of the result disclosure predicted PTSS and DT at both timepoints. An exploratory objective assessed whether perceived life threat at disclosure predicted distress outcomes differently based on biopsy results. In a sample of 191 participants, 85.9% exceeded the PTSS threshold at 7 days and 73.6% at 1 month. In contrast, 12.3% exceeded the DT threshold at 7 days, and 8.5% at 1 month. Peritraumatic distress significantly predicted PTSS at 7 days (B = 0.44, SE = 0.16, t = 2.80, p = .006) and 1 month (B = 0.76, SE = 0.18, t = 4.26, p < .001), and DT at only 7 days (B = 0.08, SE = 0.03, t = 2.60, p = .010), regardless of diagnosis outcome. Exploratory analyses showed that perceived life threat at disclosure predicted PTSS at both timepoints, only among individuals with negative results (B = 6.59, SE = 2.03, 95% CI [2.58, 10.59], p < .001). These findings highlight that the screening process itself can be perceived as life-threatening, and that assessing peritraumatic distress at the time of biopsy results may help prevent lasting symptoms, even without a cancer diagnosis.
Details
- Title
- When good news are not enough: Predicting trauma-related symptoms and non-specific distress after negative and positive breast biopsy results
- Authors
- Justine Fortin - Université du Québec à MontréalAriane Paquin - Université du Québec à MontréalAlexe Bilodeau-Houle - Université du Québec à MontréalRoxanne Leblanc - Université du Québec à MontréalMarie-Claude Lefebvre - Hôpital Maisonneuve-RosemontClarisse Defer - Hôpital Maisonneuve-RosemontIrma Horna Perez - Hôpital Maisonneuve-RosemontAlain Brunet - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson InstituteMarie-France Marin (Corresponding Author) - Université du Québec à Montréal
- Publication details
- International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, Vol.25(4), pp.1-9
- Publisher
- Asociacion Espanola de Psicologia Conductual
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ijchp.2025.100649
- ISSN
- 2174-0852; 1697-2600
- Copyright note
- © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/4.0/).
- Grant note
- This study received a research grant from the Research Center of the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (Montréal, Québec, Canada).
- Organisation Unit
- Thompson Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991184299402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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