Cancer genetic consultation and anxiety in healthy consultees

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of cancer genetic consultations on clients' feelings of anxiety. Among the 219 healthy women attending six clinics all located in different parts of France from January 1994 to January 1995, 173 (79%) answered pre- and post-consultation questionnaires and completed the anxiety inventories (Spielberger's State Trait Anxiety Inventory). On average, the subjects reported less state anxiety after than before the consultation (p < 0.001), whatever their risk status. In the women who were the most likely to be 'at risk' (N = 115), a multiple regression analysis taking the post-consultation anxiety score as the dependent variable with the pre-consultation anxiety score as a covariate. showed that the risk perception, the fact that the mother had been affected by cancer, and the level of education had independent effects on the post-consultation anxiety assessment after adjusting for the depression score. These factors accounted simultaneously for 40% of the variance of the post-consultation state anxiety score. These results indicate that this first and often only meeting with a cancer geneticist decreased the consultees' anxiety on the whole. The factors modifying this decrease should be taken into account by the providers during genetic consultations.