Cognitive factors related to distress in patients recently diagnosed with cancer.

The findings of this study indicate that rumination is an important explanatory variable of psychological distress in patients with recently diagnosed cancer. Statistical models that include rumination could explain a significant proportion of variance of clinical caseness for both anxiety and depression. These findings suggest that assessing rumination in recently diagnosed patients could improve clinical practice by detecting individuals at greater risk of developing more severe psychological distress. These findings suggest that treating rumination as a key component of the therapeutic objectives of psychological interventions could improve clinical outcomes.