Breast cancer risk, distress, and biased cognitive processing of cancer words

描述（由申请人提供）：有乳腺癌家族史的女性患乳腺癌的风险更高，并且由于她们对这种风险的认知方式，可能会报告慢性心理困扰水平升高。在健康人群和有乳腺癌家族史的妇女中，慢性痛苦与对急性压力源的反应性增加有关。有证据表明，急性应激反应会干扰对威胁相关信息的认知处理，包括癌症词汇。一项研究使用了一种改良版的Stroop颜色命名任务，表明癌症词汇会引起有乳腺癌家族史的女性的认知处理干扰。然而，在这个样本中，慢性痛苦的指标与有偏见的认知加工无关，也许是因为他们没有报告慢性痛苦水平的升高。慢性应激、急性应激反应和有偏见的认知加工在乳腺癌风险女性中的关系尚不清楚。目前的研究将通过对家族史阳性和家族史阴性的报告慢性痛苦水平升高的女性样本进行癌症Stroop任务，直接解决这一差距。拟议的研究还将测量和表征可能与接受癌症Stroop任务相关的急性应激反应，包括任务前后的急性应激等级和皮质醇采样。皮质醇是人类压力的主要生物学指标之一。最后，本研究将测试现有的10周CBSM干预对家族史阳性女性的痛苦和癌症Stroop任务表现的影响。了解慢性痛苦、急性应激反应和有偏见的认知加工如何在有乳腺癌风险的妇女中起作用是很重要的，因为有乳腺癌风险的妇女需要处理有关如何管理其风险的信息，例如是否接受预防性化疗和手术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Women with a family history of breast cancer are at greater risk for breast cancer and can report elevated levels of chronic psychological distress as a result of how they perceive that risk. Chronic distress has been associated with increased reactivity to acute stressors in healthy populations and women with a family history of breast cancer. Evidence suggests acute stress reactivity interferes with the cognitive processing of threat- related information, including cancer words. One study has used a modified version of the Stroop color naming task to show that cancer words elicit cognitive processing interference among women with a family history of breast cancer. However, indicators of chronic distress were not associated with the biased cognitive processing in this sample, perhaps because they were not reporting elevated levels of chronic distress. The relationship between chronic stress, acute stress reactivity, and biased cognitive processing among women at risk for breast cancer is not clear. The present study will directly address this gap by administering the cancer Stroop task to a sample of family history positive and family history negative women who are reporting elevated levels of chronic distress. The proposed study will also measure and characterize the acute stress response that may be associated with taking the cancer Stroop task by including acute stress ratings and cortisol sampling before and after the task. Cortisol is one of the major biological indicators of stress in humans. Finally, the present study will test the effects of an existing 10-week CBSM intervention on distress and cancer Stroop task performance among the family history positive women. It is important to understand how chronic distress, acute stress reactivity and biased cognitive processing work among women at risk for breast cancer because women at risk for breast cancer are need to process information about how to manage their risk, for example whether to undergo prophylactic chemotherapies and surgeries.