PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF PATIENTS WITH SKIN CANCER.

The study of the peculiarities of psychological response of patients with skin cancer is of great scientific and practical importance in the modern scientific field of psycho-oncology. The aim of the study of individual-psychological characteristics and spectrum of psychopathological symptomatology of patients with skin cancer taking into account gender differences. 41 men and 29 women with non-melanoma stage III malignant epitheliomas were studied using a short multivariate personality questionnaire and the SCL-90-R questionnaire. In individually-psychological profile of women higher indices of hypochondria were revealed (75,03±2,82 points, р<0,05), depression (82,34±4,39 points, р<0,05), hysteria (66,31±5,63 points, р<0,05), and psychasthenia (80,86±4,18 points, р<0,05), and somatization (2,75±0,49 points, р<0,05), obsessive-compulsive symptoms (1,71±0,58 points, р<0,05), interpersonal sensitivity (1,36±0,42 points, р<0,05), depression (2,69±0,16 points, р<0,01) and anxiety (2,29±0,83 points, р<0,05) according to the questionnaire SCL-90-R. In men, higher scores on the scale of hypomania were found (45,61±13,49 points, р<0,05) and hostility (1,18±0,76 points, р<0,05). These features are a reflection of the complex of psychological reactions to a serious malignant disease, as well as gender characteristics of psychological models of response; it is also important to consider the impact of age-related psychopathological changes. The study revealed gender differences in psychopathological symptoms, associated with skin cancer, including marked depressive, anxious and hypochondriacal tendencies, as well as somatic fixations and asthenisation phenomena, which are more pronounced in women, as well as hostilities that are more typical for men. At the same time, significant depressive, anxious and hypochondriacal manifestations are typical for skin cancer patients.