Sleep disorders and their relationship to other psychiatric disorders in women with breast cancer: a case-control study

Background Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among women, impacting 2.1 million women each year. The aim of the study is to determine prevalence of sleep disorders among patients with breast cancer, its correlation with different psychological symptoms and the ability of such symptoms to predict sleep disorders among those patients. The current study is a case-control study compromised of 153 participants, 93 breast cancer patients versus 60 cross-matched healthy control persons recruited from the outpatient clinic of Oncology Department—Assiut University Hospital. Arabic versions of Beck’s Depression Inventory, symptom checklist, and Sleep Disorder Scale were used to evaluate depression, obsession, sensitivity, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoia ideation, psychoticism, and sleep disorders, respectively. The correlation of this data with clinical and social variables of these patients and the effect of such variables on each other were also determined. Results A statistically higher prevalence of sleep disorders and depression was reported among breast cancer patients compared to the control group. Also, patients with breast cancer scored statistically higher mean scores in somatization, obsession, sensitivity, anxiety, and phobic anxiety than those of the control group. Conclusions Prevalence of sleep disorders, depression, obsession, sensitivity, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoia ideation, and psychoticism among breast cancer patients poses a challenge to the treatment of such patients. Misdiagnosis and mismanagement lead to poor treatment outcomes of both cancer disease and psychiatric disorders.