Dataset Information

Individual meaning-centered psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological and existential distress: A randomized controlled trial in patients with advanced cancer.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Patients with advanced cancer have high rates of psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and spiritual despair. This study examined the effectiveness of individual meaning-centered psychotherapy (IMCP) in comparison with supportive psychotherapy (SP) and enhanced usual care (EUC) in improving spiritual well-being and quality of life and reducing psychological distress in patients with advanced cancer. METHODS:Patients (n?=?321) were randomly assigned to IMCP (n?=?109), SP (n?=?108), or EUC (n?=?104). Assessments were conducted at 4 time points: before intervention, midtreatment (4 weeks), 8 weeks after treatment, and 16 weeks after treatment. RESULTS:Significant treatment effects (small to medium in magnitude) were observed for IMCP, in comparison with EUC, for 5 of 7 outcome variables (quality of life, sense of meaning, spiritual well-being, anxiety, and desire for hastened death), with Cohen's d ranging from 0.1 to 0.34; no significant improvement was observed for patients receiving SP (d??.05 for all variables). The effect of IMCP was significantly greater than the effect of SP for quality of life and sense of meaning (d?=?0.19) but not for the remaining study variables. CONCLUSIONS:This study provides further support for the efficacy of IMCP as a treatment for psychological and existential/spiritual distress in patients with advanced cancer. Significant treatment effects (small to moderate effect sizes) were observed in comparison with usual care, and somewhat more modest differences in improvement (small effect sizes) were observed in comparison with SP. Thus, the benefits of meaning-centered psychotherapy appear to be unique to the intervention and highlight the importance of addressing existential issues with patients approaching the end of life. Cancer 2018. © 2018 American Cancer Society.

SUBMITTER: Breitbart W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6097940 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Individual meaning-centered psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological and existential distress: A randomized controlled trial in patients with advanced cancer.

Breitbart William W Pessin Hayley H Rosenfeld Barry B Applebaum Allison J AJ Lichtenthal Wendy G WG Li Yuelin Y Saracino Rebecca M RM Marziliano Allison M AM Masterson Melissa M Tobias Kristen K Fenn Natalie N

Cancer 20180514 15

<h4>Background</h4>Patients with advanced cancer have high rates of psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and spiritual despair. This study examined the effectiveness of individual meaning-centered psychotherapy (IMCP) in comparison with supportive psychotherapy (SP) and enhanced usual care (EUC) in improving spiritual well-being and quality of life and reducing psychological distress in patients with advanced cancer.<h4>Methods</h4>Patients (n = 321) were randomly assigned to I ...[more]

PMID: 29757459

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a psychological intervention with established efficacy in the prevention and treatment of depressive disorders. Previous systematic reviews have not evaluated the effectiveness of IPT on symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, quality of life, relationship satisfaction/quality, social supports, and an improved psychological sense of wellbeing. There is limited information regarding moderating and mediating factors that impact the effectiveness of IPT such as the timing of the intervention or the mode of delivery of IPT intervention. The overall objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of IPT interventions to treat perinatal (from pregnancy up to 12 months postpartum) psychological distress. METHODS:MEDLINE(R) and Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Daily (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (OVID), CINAHL with Full Text (Ebsco), Social Work Abstracts (Ebsco), SocINDEX with Full Text (Ebsco), Academic Search Complete (Ebsco), Family & Society Studies Worldwide (Ebsco), Family Studies Abstracts (Ebsco), and Scopus databases were searched from inception until 31 January 2019. Two researchers independently screened articles for eligibility. Of the 685 screened articles, 43 met the inclusion criteria. The search was re-run on 11 May 2020. An additional 204 articles were screened and two met the inclusion criteria, resulting in a total of 45 studies included in this review. There were 25 Randomized Controlled Trials, 10 Quasi-experimental studies, eight Open Trials, and two Single Case Studies. All included studies were critically appraised for quality. RESULTS:In most studies (n = 24, 53%), the IPT intervention was delivered individually; in 17 (38%) studies IPT was delivered in a group setting and two (4%) studies delivered the intervention as a combination of group and individual IPT. Most interventions were initiated during pregnancy (n = 27, 60%), with the remaining 18 (40%) studies initiating interventions during the postpartum period. LIMITATIONS:This review included only English-language articles and peer-reviewed literature. It excluded government reports, dissertations, conference papers, and reviews. This limited the access to grassroots or community-based recruitment and retention strategies that may have been used to target smaller or marginalized groups of perinatal women. CONCLUSIONS:IPT is an effective intervention for the prevention and treatment of psychological distress in women during their pregnancy and postpartum period. As a treatment intervention, IPT is effective in significantly reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as improving social support, relationship quality/satisfaction, and adjustment. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO CRD42019114292.

Project description:IntroductionAt the end of life, patients with advanced cancer and their informal caregivers may confront multiple existential concerns. Despite the strong potential to alleviate existential distress through psychosocial interventions, existential distress and its impact on healthcare outcomes have not yet been studied systematically. We aim to investigate the frequency, longitudinal trajectory and predictive impact of existential distress on end-of-life outcomes. We further aim to determine patients' and caregivers' specific need for and utilisation of psychosocial support for existential distress.MethodsThis longitudinal cohort study will consecutively recruit 500 patients with advanced cancer and 500 caregivers from oncological outpatient and inpatient clinics. Participants will complete self-report questionnaires (sociodemographic and disease-related characteristics, existential distress, end-of-life outcomes, resources and support needs) at five points of assessment (at baseline and after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months). At baseline and 6-month follow-up, we will conduct structured diagnostic interviews to assess mental disorders. Statistical analyses will include descriptive statistics to determine the prevalence of existential distress, mental disorders and end-of-life outcomes; multiple linear and logistic regression analyses to calculate the predictive impact of existential distress on end-of-life outcomes; and growth mixture models to analyse longitudinal trajectories of existential distress.DiscussionThis study will provide comprehensive knowledge about patients' and caregivers' existential concerns. The longitudinal empirical data will allow for conclusions concerning the frequency and course of existential distress throughout 1 year. This important extension of existing cross-sectional research will contribute to further develop targeted psychosocial interventions. Profiles of existential distress may be applied by clinicians from multiple professions and help to address existential concerns effectively.Ethics and disseminationThe study was approved by the institutional research ethics committee (reference number LPEK-0177). Results will be presented at scientific conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. Other forms of dissemination will include sharing results on the psychometric properties of the structured demoralisation interview with international research groups and communication with healthcare professionals providing psychosocial treatment for patients and caregivers. Following scientific standards, our progress will be regularly updated on ClinicalTrials.gov.Trial registration numberNCT04600206.

Dataset Information

Individual meaning-centered psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological and existential distress: A randomized controlled trial in patients with advanced cancer.

Publications

Individual meaning-centered psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological and existential distress: A randomized controlled trial in patients with advanced cancer.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure