The symptom profiles of eighty-five women with no history of mastectomy or breast cancer were compared to those of seventy-three mastectomy patients in self-help groups, fifty mastectomy patients who had undergone breast reconstruction and 166 mastectomy patients who were neither in self-help nor reconstructed. There were no significant differences on the major symptom scales of the SCL-90 between any of the groups. The authors conclude that women distant in time from the cancer experience are no different from their normally healthy peers.
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