‘You're putting thoughts into my head’: a qualitative study of the readiness of patients with breast, lung or prostate cancer to address emotional needs through the first 18 months after diagnosis

Abstract

Drawing on social cognitive and other theories, we suggest that engagement in physical treatment and care allows patients to address emotional needs following a cancer diagnosis. Guidance that emotional needs should routinely be assessed and addressed at key points in the cancer trajectory should therefore be implemented cautiously when patients are only recently diagnosed; psychological intervention may be less appropriate at this time than later.