Spirituality and the quality of life of cancer patients: An antidepressant effect.

OBJECTIVES: Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in the world, and represents an economic, social and psychological burden. Scientific studies have focused on psychosocial coping mechanisms of patients and on factors improving their quality of life. Thus, the aim of the present study is to analyze the influence that spirituality would have on the quality of life of Lebanese cancer patients and to identify whether the influence on quality of life is mediated through a decreased depression. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study targeting cancer patients in the hemato-oncology department of the Hôtel-Dieu de France Hospital (Beirut, Lebanon). It is based on a questionnaire composed of three parts: EQ-5D-5L, PHQ-9, and FACIT-Sp-12. Likewise, a control group suffering from chronic diseases and treated in the hospital was questioned. Univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted to assess the relationship between the different questionnaires for controls and for cancer patients. RESULTS: Thirty-nine cancer patients and eight control patients were questioned. In the univariate analysis, there was no relationship between depression and spirituality nor for spirituality and quality of life. After controlling for depression, an inverse correlation between quality of life and spirituality was shown. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is a pilot study which for the first time investigates the implication of depression in a "spirituality-quality of life" association. There is no clear association of spirituality with quality of life. In fact, the physical and psychological burden of chronically ill patients could exceed and render insignificant a possible impact of spirituality on quality of life.

Enhancing nucleation and controlling crystal orientation by rubbing/scratching the surface of a thin polymer film.

We used the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) in the contact mode to scratch/rub the surface of a glassy polymer thin film, i.e., isotactic polystyrene (i-PS) at room temperature. After subsequent isothermal crystallization, an extremely high nucleation density of edge-on crystals within the rubbed region or at the edge of the scratched area was observed. Furthermore, a transition from edge-on to flat-on lamellae occurred beyond a certain distance from the edge of the scratched region. Our results demonstrate that both, soft rubbing or hard scratching, allow to lower the nucleation barrier for polymer crystallization and to control the orientation of the resulting crystalline lamellae. The role of scratching/rubbing on chain deformation and its relation to nucleation and crystal orientation in polymer thin films is discussed.