Chemotherapy impairs verbal, problem solving skills
July 23rd, 2009 - 2:24 pm ICT by IANSWashington, July 23 (IANS) Chemotherapy impairs verbal fluency skills and problem-solving abilities, according to the latest findings.
“Now that we are aware of these lingering effects, we can do something to help these patients,” said Stephanie Reid-Arndt, professor at Missouri University (MU), who conducted the study.
“After treatment, it isn’t that you are severely impaired, but you might experience some mild weaknesses. Our next step is to examine some specific interventions and see which ones might help with these difficulties,” she added.
Reid-Arndt and her colleague, Michael Perry, studied women who had undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer. They tested the women three times during the year following chemotherapy.
The scientists evaluated neuro-psychological functioning, self-reported cognitive difficulties, fatigue, the amount of social support they sought, depression, and the quality of life experienced by the breast cancer survivors.
Reid-Arndt identified two measures of daily cognitive functioning that seemed to affect quality of life. Verbal fluency, the ability to recall certain words when necessary, and self-reports of problems with memory concentration were indicators of poor daily functioning.
“It was a small, but significant percentage of breast cancer survivors that were reporting these problems in the study,” Reid-Arndt said.
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Tags: arndt, breast cancer, breast cancer survivors, chemotherapy, cognitive difficulties, cognitive functioning, colleague, concentration, fatigue, fluency skills, interventions, missouri university, mu, problem solving skills, quality of life, self reports, stephanie, three times, verbal fluency, verbal problem