PloS one
Adaptive and maladaptive emotions in patients with cancer: A network perspective
By Doppenberg-Smit GE, Hoogendoorn AW, Braamse AMJ and 10 others.
Abstract
Background
Receiving a cancer diagnosis frequently evokes a wide range of emotions. Emotions may help to cope with cancer: these are adaptive emotions. When emotions become disproportionate to the situation or interfere with functioning, emotions are maladaptive. According to the network theory of mental disorders, symptoms are reciprocally associated with each other; if there are strong connections between symptoms, the symptom network remains activated. A strongly connected network indicates maladaptive emotions.
Objective
To examine whether patients with cancer with maladaptive emotions are characterized by stronger associations among emotional (and among emotional and cancer-treatment-related) symptoms as compared to patients with adaptive emotions.