Identification of the anxiety response pattern in short-term breast cancer survivors

Objectives: Anxiety appears frequently in short-term breast cancer survivors. There is no infor-mation, however, about the existence of a specific pattern of response in this group of patients. Method: Ten breast cancer survivors whose time from the end of treatment was between 1 and 5 years and a control group from the general population, carried out the Inventory of Situations and Responses of Anxiety and a socio-demographic questionnaire designed ad hoc. Results: Survivors group obtained higher scores than the control group in anxiety systems (cogni-tive, physiological and motor) but with no significant differences. In survivors group a particularpattern was observed in which there were no differences between the systems, while in the control group there were differences between cognitive-physiological and cognitive-motor systemsbut no differences were observed between physiological and motor systems.Conclusions: In breast cancer survivors whose time from the end of treatment do not exceed5 years, a particular anxiety response pattern is obtained with higher scores in physiologicaland motor anxiety.