Psychological Symptoms and Health Related Quality of Life in Patients with Mastalgia

Mastalgia is common among women and its aetiology is still not fully understood. Many studies have been conducted to reveal the relationship between breast pain and psychosomatic disorders. The goals of the project are to compare the interaction of psychological symptoms and health related quality of life (HRQL) in patients with mastalgia between Eastern and Western Turkey.

Seventy-four women from the General Surgery Clinic of Diyarbakır Ergani Hospital (Eastern group) (n=39) and Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine (Western group) (n=35) were included in the study. The symptom checklist-90-revised (SCL-90-R) scale was used to evaluate physiological findings and Short Form-36 (SF-36) scale was used for evaluating health related quality of life (HRQL).

The median age of patients from Eastern group was 27.54 (18-39) years and 35.57 (18-70) years in Western group (t=-4.585, P<0.0001). Average Global Severity İndex (GSI) scores of the eastern group were statistically significantly higher than those of the western group (P<0.01). When the SCL-90-R values of the eastern and western groups were compared, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, phobic anxiety, psychoticism, depression and anxiety in the eastern group were higher than in the western group. According to SF-36 results, the mean scores in the eastern group tended to be lower than those in the western group.

The results revealed that psychological symptoms differ between eastern and western Turkey. This may indicate that socio-economic differences may also have effects on psychological symptoms. In addition, mastalgia negatively affects women's quality of life.