For the general public, talking about cancer is frightening, and they always feel that “cancer is fiercer than a tiger”, and when they learn that they have cancer, they subconsciously believe that their lives are sentenced to “death” – a stay of execution. The result is a huge psychological haze.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common tumors of the digestive system.
The most common tumor in the digestive system is liver cancer.
Many patients are resistant to disease perception and treatment due to adverse emotions, refusing to cooperate with doctors, delaying the best treatment time, or developing extreme pessimism, which greatly reduces the treatment effect. Therefore, it is necessary to provide some appropriate psychological guidance to cancer patients.
Clinically, self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS) can be used to assess patients’ disease psychology more accurately, and then according to the scores obtained and the stage of liver cancer, psychological counseling can be provided accordingly. The patient’s psychological condition is then assessed more accurately by self-rating depression scale (SDS) and other assessment tools.
Psychological care in the early stages of liver cancer
A sudden abnormality on regular physical examination, or liver occupancy on examination for liver discomfort, pain, or wasting, combined with the patient’s history of hepatitis B, abnormal elevation of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) or carbohydrate antigen 199, CA 199, are all indications of primary The potential for hepatocellular carcinoma.
At this point, it is common for patients to become skeptical. If the diagnosis is confirmed, they are prone to fear and pessimism.
Therefore, we need to help early-stage patients understand the disease, comfort and encourage them, so that they are less devastated by the cancer, and help them understand the current treatment options and that liver cancer is not an “incurable” disease.
While drug therapy for liver cancer is still limited, early treatment with surgery, intervention, microwave ablation, anhydrous alcohol, and other methods can result in a 5-year survival rate of 52.3% for radically resected patients.
As patients become more aware of their condition, they gradually accept the reality psychologically. This is a time when family and friends are needed more than ever, when health care professionals are needed to help with treatment, and when physicians are needed for positive encouragement. This way the patient can cooperate with treatment, face reality openly, and accept it happily.
Psychological care for advanced liver cancer
Due to the time window of consultation, the speed of liver cancer progression, economic conditions, and personal physical quality, the mood of patients in advanced stages can also be seriously affected, resulting in pessimism and despair.
On the other hand, liver cancer has more complications at the late stage, such as abdominal distension, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatocellular carcinoma rupture and bleeding, gastrointestinal bleeding, systemic tumor metastasis, pain, etc. The long-term torture is bound to make patients pessimistic and even desperate.
As family members of such patients, they need to be patient, comforting and persuasive, and show patients more examples of other liver cancer patients who have been successfully cured and stabilized.
Patients can also develop more hobbies, such as keeping pets, vegetation and flowers, to divert their attention and increase their confidence in fighting cancer.
For patients with end-stage liver cancer, we should also pay attention to psychological care while caring for their physical state. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have the right amount of time to do it.