Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:39:51.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baum, S., Boxley, R., & Sokolowski, M. (1984). Time perception and psychological well-being in the elderly. Psychiatry Quarterly, 56, 54–61.Google Scholar
Blewett, A.E. (1992). Abnormal subjective time experience in depression. British Journal Psychiatry, 161, 195–200.Google Scholar
Breitbart, W., Gibson, C., Poppito, S., et al. (2004). Psychotherapeutic interventions at the end of life: A focus on meaning and spirituality. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 49, 366–372.Google Scholar
Breitbart, W., Rosenfeld, B., Pessin, H., et al. (2000). Depression, hopelessness, and desire for hastened death in terminally ill patients with cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association, 284, 2907–2911.Google Scholar
Bschor, T., Ising, M., Bauer, M., et al. (2004). Time experience and time judgment in major depression, mania and healthy subjects. A controlled study of 93 subjects. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 109, 222–229.Google Scholar
Cella, D.F., Tulsky, D., Gray, G., et al. (1993). The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) scale: Development and validation of the general measure. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 11, 570–579.Google Scholar
Cole, B.S. (2005). Spiritually-focused psychotherapy for people with cancer: A pilot outcome study. Mental Health, Religion, & Culture, 8, 217–226.Google Scholar
Fritzsche, K., Struss, Y., Hammel, A., et al. (2004). Relationship between psychosocial distress, treatment need and use of psychotherapeutic interventions within a psychosomatic liaison service in hematological oncology. Onkologie, 27, 457–461.Google Scholar
Green, A. & Austin, C. (1994). Psychopathology of pancreatic cancer. Psychosomatics, 34, 208–221.Google Scholar
Greenstein, M. & Breitbart, W. (2000). Cancer and the experience of meaning: A group psychotherapy program for people with cancer. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 54, 486–500.Google Scholar
Gruber, U., Vollmer, T.C., & Hiddemann, W. (2000). Palliative psycho-oncology—Requirements and strategies: A new beginning at the end? Gynakologe, 33, 718–725.Google Scholar
Holland, J.C., Korzun, A.H., Tross, S., et al. (1986). Comparative psychological disturbance in pancreatic and gastric cancer. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 982–986.Google Scholar
Holland, J.C. (1989). Anxiety and cancer: The patient and family. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 50, 20–25.Google Scholar
Holland, J.C., Morrow, G., Schmale, A., et al. (1988). Reduction of anxiety and depression in cancer patients by alprazolam or by a behavioral technique. Proceedings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 6, 258.Google Scholar
Hyodo, I., Eguchi, K., Takigawa, N., et al. (1999). Psychological impact of informed consent in hospitalized cancer patients. A sequential study of anxiety and depression using the hospital anxiety and depression scale. Supportive Care in Cancer, 7, 396–399.Google Scholar
Kessler, J., Grond, M., & Schaaf, A. (1991). Kognitives Minimalscreening (KMS). Weinheim: Beltz.
Kuhs, H., Hermann, W., Kammer, K., et al. (1989). The daily course of the symptomatology and the impaired time estimation in endogeneous depression (melancholia). Journal of Affective Disorders, 17, 285–290.Google Scholar
Lee, V., Cohen, S.R., Edgar, L., et al. (2004). Clarifying “meaning” in the context of cancer research: A systematic literature review. Palliative and Supportive Care, 2, 291–303.Google Scholar
Locsin, R. (1993). Time experience of selected institutionalized adult clients. Clinical Nursing Research, 2, 451–463.Google Scholar
Massie, M.J. (1989). Anxiety, panic and phobias. In The handbook of Psychooncology: The Psychological Care of the Cancer Patient, Holland, J. & Rowland, J. (eds.), pp. 300–309. New York: Oxford University Press.
Massie, M.J. & Holland, J.C. (1987). The cancer patient with pain: Psychiatric complications and their management. Medical Clinics of North America, 71, 243–258.Google Scholar
Massie, M.J. & Holland, J.C. (1990). Depression and the cancer patient. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 51, 12–17.Google Scholar
Midtgaard, J., Rørth, M., Stelter, R., et al. (2005). The impact of a multidimensional exercise program on self-reported anxiety and depression in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: A phase II study. Palliative and Supportive Care, 3, 197–208.Google Scholar
Montgomery, C., Pocock, M., Titley, K., et al. (2003). Predicting psychological distress in patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 54, 289–292.Google Scholar
Münzel, K., Gender, G., Steinberg, R., et al. (1998). Time estimation of depressive patients: The influence of interval content. European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences, 237, 171–178.Google Scholar
Passik, S.D., Inman, A., Kirsh, K., et al. (2003). Initial validation of a scale to measure purposelessness, underestimation, and boredom in cancer patients: Toward a redefinition of depression in advanced disease. Palliative and Supportive Care, 1, 41–50.Google Scholar
Peterman, A.H., Fitchett, G., & Brady, M.J. et al. (2002). Measuring spiritual well-being in people with cancer: The functional assessment of chronic illness therapy—Spiritual Well-being Scale (FACIT-Sp). Annals of Behavior Medicine, 24, 49–58.Google Scholar
Sellick, S. & Crooks, D. (1999). Depression and cancer: An appraisal of the literature for prevalence, detection, and practice guideline development for psychological interventions. Psycho-Oncology, 8, 315–333.Google Scholar
Skarstein, J., Aass, N., Fossa, S.D., et al. (2000). Anxiety and depression in cancer patients: Relation between the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 49, 27–34.Google Scholar
Stine, M.M., O'Connor, R., Yatko, B., et al. (2002). Evidence for a relationship between daily caffeine consumption and accuracy of time estimation. Human Psychopharmacology, 17, 361–367.Google Scholar
Twenge, J.M., Catanese, K.R., & Baumeister, R.F. (2003). Social exclusion and the deconstructed state: Time perception, meaninglessness, lethargy, lack of emotion, and self-awareness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 409–423.Google Scholar
Vollmer, T., Wittmann, M., Pöppel, E., et al. (2000). Time perception in subjective confrontation with death. Abstract. Psycho-Oncology, 9(Suppl.), 164.Google Scholar
Watt, J.D. (1991). Effect of boredom proneness on time perception. Psychological Reports, 69, 323–327.Google Scholar
Wearden, J.H. (2004). Decision processes in models of timing. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis, 64, 303–317.Google Scholar
Wittmann, M. (1999). Time perception and temporal processing levels of the brain. Chronobiology International, 16, 17–32.Google Scholar
Wittmann, M. & Lehnhoff, S. (2005). Age effects in the perception of time. Psychological Reports, 97, 921–935.Google Scholar
Zakay, D. & Block, R. (1996). The role of attention in time estimation processes. In Time, Internal Clocks and Movement, Pastor, M. & Artieda, J. (eds.), pp. 143–164. North Holland: Elsevier Science.
Zakay, D. & Block, R. (1997). Temporal cognition. Current Directions in Psychology, 6, 12–16.Google Scholar
Zigmond, A. & Snaith, R. (1983). The Hospital and Anxiety and Depression Scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 67, 361–370.Google Scholar