This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Salander, P. Articles by Spetz, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Salander, P. Articles by Spetz, A. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Brain Cancer Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

How do patients and spouses deal with the serious facts of malignant glioma?

Agneta Spetz

Department of Radiation Sciences Oncology, Umea University, Umeå

Malignant glioma is a severe disease with little chance for recovery. Due to its effect on cerebral function, it is also a disease with an obvious social impact on family life. Brain tumours, therefore, produce much of the anguish associated with cancer diseases. There is a lack of prospective studies concerning how patients and spouses together deal with the serious facts of cancer. In this study, a series of 25 consecutive patients with malignant gliomas and their spouses was followed during the whole course of the disease process by repeated thematic interviews. The spouses were also subjected to a summarizing interview after the patient's death. The interviews were analyzed qualitatively in order to detect the various ways the patient spouse couples dealt with this severe situation and how they discussed it with each other. Four different social processes were detected: 1) the patient does not seem to be aware, the spouse is aware but pretends not to be; 2) both are aware, but the patient does not want to share; they drift apart; 3) both are aware, they do/do not talk openly about the gravity of the situation; nevertheless, there is a joint platform; and 4) neither patient nor spouse seems to be aware; they carry on living as before. The patients, compared to the spouses, seemed content with received information. A few of the couples openly discussed death and dying. More common, and apparently sufficient, was a mutual acknowledgement of the serious facts, without using the words ‘death’ and ‘dying’. In a sense, the present findings challenge the awareness categories suggested by Glaser and Strauss.

Key Words: attitude to death • awareness • brain tumour • communication • relationships

Palliative Medicine, Vol. 16, No. 4, 305-313 (2002)
DOI: 10.1191/0269216302pm569oa


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				I. James, B. Andershed, and B.-M. Ternestedt A Family's Beliefs About Cancer, Dying, and Death in the End of Life Journal of Family Nursing, May 1, 2007; 13(2): 226 - 252. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. Faithfull, K. Cook, and C. Lucas Palliative care of patients with a primary malignant brain tumour: case review of service use and support provided Palliative Medicine, October 1, 2005; 19(7): 545 - 550. [Abstract] [PDF]

				I. Hellstrom, M. Nolan, and U. Lundh Awareness context theory and the dynamics of dementia: Improving understanding using emergent fit Dementia, June 1, 2005; 4(2): 269 - 295. [Abstract] [PDF]