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The relation between the experience of time and psychological distress in patients with hematological malignancies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2006

MARC WITTMANN ,
TANJA VOLLMER ,
CLAUDIA SCHWEIGER  and
WOLFGANG HIDDEMANN
MARC WITTMANN
Affiliation:
Generation Research Program Bad Tölz, Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California
TANJA VOLLMER
Affiliation:
Division of Psycho-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Munich-Grosshadern, Munich, Germany
CLAUDIA SCHWEIGER
Affiliation:
Division of Psycho-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Munich-Grosshadern, Munich, Germany
WOLFGANG HIDDEMANN
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Großhadern, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Abstract

Objective: The experience of time is strongly related to our momentary mood states. Patients with a life-threatening illness experience an extreme change in mood and suffer from psychological distress that can develop into clinically relevant psychiatric disorders, like anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations among the subjective perception of time, psychological distress, and quality of life in patients with hematological malignancies.

Methods: Eighty-eight inpatients with hematological malignancies rated how fast time passes subjectively on a visual analog scale and prospectively estimated a time span of 13 min. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) self-report measures of health-related quality of life (FACT-G) and spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp) were employed to assess psychological distress and quality of life.

Results: Those patients who reported a lower quality of life, less spiritual well-being, and more anxiety experienced a slower passage of subjective time and overestimated the 13-min time interval.

Significance of results: Our interpretation of the results is that patients with a life-threatening illness who show symptoms of psychological distress draw attention away from meaningful thoughts and actions and, thus, experience time as passing more slowly. An altered sense of time can be a sign of mental suffering, which should be addressed within psycho-oncological interventions. As this is the first study to demonstrate this relation in cancer patients, further research is needed to investigate the experience of time and its relation to meaning as an issue in clinical diagnostics.

Keywords

Time perceptionAnxietyQuality of lifeDistressMeaningCancer
Type
Research Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 357 - 363
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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