Page 65 - JCBP-3-2

Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Biopsychosocial factors in cancer pain: A

multidimensional evaluation of quality of life,
mental health, and mortality

1
Carla Retroz-Marques * , Inês Retroz-Marques 2 , and Acílio Marques 1
1 Department of Anesthesiology, Coimbra Hospital and University Centre (CHUC), Coimbra, Portugal
2 Department of Integrated Master’s Degree in Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract
Patients with cancer pain are often subjected to a range of biopsychosocial
conditioning factors, although the extent of their interactions remains unclear. This
study aims to assess specific biopsychosocial dimensions using multidimensional
questionnaires. Specifically, it analyzes the impact, correlation, and collinearity
of factors such as pain, anxiety, depression, activities of daily living, and quality
of life (QoL). The study focuses on the relationship between individual autonomy,
depression, and anxiety, and their subsequent impact on mortality. This prospective,
observational, cross-sectional study was conducted over 1 year with 120 cancer
patients. Data were collected utilizing the Brief Pain Inventory, the Hospital Anxiety
*Corresponding author: and Depression Scale, and the Short-Form-36 questionnaire and subsequently
Carla Retroz-Marques
(4280@ulscoimbra.min-saude.pt) analyzed. The results reveal collinearity among the questionnaires and indicate that
the loss of individual autonomy significantly worsens depression, though it does
Citation: Retroz-Marques C,
Retroz-Marques I, Marques A. not have a comparable effect on anxiety. Statistically significant correlations were
Biopsychosocial factors in cancer observed between depression and anxiety with mortality. The findings underscore
pain: A multidimensional evaluation the importance of early recognition of distress symptoms during the management
of quality of life, mental health, and
mortality. J Clin Basic Psychosom. of oncologic patients, alongside effective pain management. Mortality was strongly
2025;3(2):59-69. associated with high scores for depression and anxiety. Family caregiver support and
doi: 10.36922/jcbp.4097 social network involvement should be prioritized, and healthcare providers should
Received: July 1, 2024 promote individual autonomy to improve treatment outcomes. Although further
research is needed, this study suggests that adopting a holistic approach to cancer
Revised: November 21, 2024
care could not only improve QoL but also potentially extend life expectancy.
Accepted: November 27, 2024
Published online: December 30, Keywords: Depression; Anxiety; Mental health; Cancer pain; Personal autonomy; Marital
2024
status; Surveys and questionnaires; Quality of life
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, 1. Introduction
and reproduction in any medium,
1
provided the original work is Oncological pain plays a predominant role in impairing patients’ quality of life (QoL).
properly cited. Biopsychosocial factors, such as chronic pain, sleep disturbances, changes in daily
Publisher’s Note: AccScience activities, and a lack of family care and social support, form a vicious cycle that can
Publishing remains neutral with exacerbate baseline anxiety and depression. As a result, the physiological effects of severe
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional psychological distress may lower the pain threshold, causing even minor stimuli to feel
affiliations. intensely painful.

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 59 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.4097