Decision Making and Distress Among Individuals Diagnosed with Follicular Lymphoma

Abstract

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent lymphoma that generally responds well to treatment. However, individuals with FL commonly face multiple complex treatment decision-making (TDM) experiences because it frequently follows a relapsing and remitting course. This study explored TDM and distress among individuals with FL (N = 32). Results indicated that most participants reported little decisional conflict or regret and wanted to be actively involved in TDM. However, more than 25% of participants reported clinically-relevant cancer-specific distress, and 60% indicated moderate or higher anxiety symptoms. Research is needed to clarify the cause and course of the psychological distress revealed in this study.

KEYWORDS:

• follicular lymphoma
• treatment decision making
• distress
• decision satisfaction
• decisional conflict

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the patients and oncologists at the Markey Cancer Center for contributing to this research as well as financial support from the Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine.