How long it takes to adapt, to what extent people can and do adapt, and the factors
determining this, seems still to be broadly unknown. However Breetvelt and Van Dam
(1991) have reported interesting findings that suggest how adaptation may be measured
independently of SWB. First observing that many studies which employ patient self-report
suggest that cancer patients are not more anxious or unhappy than other patient groups or
even the normal healthy population, they suggest that this seems to conflict with the
everyday experience of physicians and other care takers. A recent paper by Epstein et al.
(1989) has provided evidence of this, where family/friend care givers were asked to act as
proxies for older chronically ill patients. Although proxy and subject-own responses were
generally similar for overall health, functional status, and social activity, proxies rated
subjects' emotional health and satisfaction significantly lower than did the subjects
themselves (of course this could indicate inaccuracy of the proxies).