Cancer treatment now supported by psycho-oncology
Cancer treatment can be scary. How Psycho-Oncology Helps Cancer Treatment
Every year millions of people around the world are diagnosed with cancer. For many people, this news is terrifying. During the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the patient faces many psychological and emotional problems
Cancer patient Kurt Schroeder said doctors told him cancer cells were back in his body. The names of these two individuals have been changed in this article to conceal the identity of the patients. “This is not good news, especially when the cancer is of the gallbladder. In surgery, they removed the cancer, but there are still some cells left. My wish is that no cancer cells remain.
Schroeder is sixty-one years old and has been healthy all his life. However, in August 2022, he was diagnosed with cancer, while he underwent surgery in October of the same year. In this surgery, the head of the gallbladder and the part of the small intestine called the duodenum are removed. Then there was the chemotherapy phase, which has side effects like vomiting, taste changes and dizziness. “If you eat bread, you’d think I’m eating junk food,” explains Schroeder. The sweetness of the banana was palpable. I couldn’t eat anything.”
He then approached Gudrun Berns, head of the Cancer Counseling Center in MĂĽnster, Germany.
Cancer counseling is more than first aid
Burns decided she would use her experience in psycho-oncology here. This scientific field flourished in the year 1970. According to Burns, “Psycho-oncology deals with the psychological and social changes caused by cancer.”
According to study reports, about twenty-five to thirty percent of patients suffer from psychological problems after the diagnosis of cancer. Psycho-oncology counselors thus help patients transition back to their daily lives from this difficult time. Practical help and information are provided to patients in this regard.
According to Kurt Schroeder, “Burns knows a lot of people at this institute. They have so many connections that they don’t even remember themselves. Obviously this is a great help in itself. That is, when you need help at different points in relation to treatment and you get help in such a case
Psycho-oncology should be preferred
One of the main goals of the International Society for Psycho-Oncology is to address the psychological and emotional issues associated with cancer so that the cancer treatment process can be completed easily and globally. This society was established in Toronto and New York in 1984. The organization works to make psycho-oncology an integral part of cancer treatment.
Nineteen million people worldwide were diagnosed with cancer in the year 2020. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, this number is likely to increase in the coming years. According to this international organization, nearly ten million people died from this disease in 2020, while in 2040 this number may exceed 16 million.
Relatives also need help
A diagnosis of cancer not only changes the life of the patient, but also affects the lives of the patient’s family members.
According to studies, families of cancer patients also face severe mental and psychological stress. According to Burns, “Relatives feel that they have to do as much as possible to support the victim and cannot focus on their own lives properly. If in such a case they respect their desires and aspirations, moral justification and conscience rebuke them. Even during this time, they face the same mental pressure even while going to the cinema or any other recreational activity.
According to Burns, no one benefits from this. “It is very important that relatives find ways to maintain their own energy,” she says