Identifying critical psychotherapy targets in serious cardiac conditions: The importance of addressing coping with symptoms, healthcare navigation, and social support.

Identifying critical psychotherapy targets in serious cardiac conditions: The importance of addressing coping with symptoms, healthcare navigation, and social support. Palliat Support Care. 2019 Jan 31;:1-5 Authors: Bekelman DB, Knoepke CE, Turvey C Abstract OBJECTIVE: In seriously ill cardiac patients, several psychotherapy efficacy studies demonstrate little to no reduction in depression or improvement in quality of life, and little is known about how to improve psychotherapies to best address the range of patient needs. An interpersonal and behavioral activation psychotherapy was a key component of the Collaborative Care to Alleviate Symptoms and Adjust to Illness (CASA) multisite randomized clinical trial. Although depressive symptoms did improve in the CASA trial, questions remain about how best to tailor psychotherapies to the needs of seriously ill patient populations. The study objective was to describe psychosocial needs emerging during a clinical trial of a palliative care and interpersonal and behavioral activation psychotherapy intervention that were not specifically addressed by the psychotherapy. METHOD: During the CASA trial, patient needs were prospectively tracked by the psychotherapist in each visit note using an a priori code list. Preplanned analysis of study data using directed content analysis was conducted analyzing the a priori code list, which were collapsed by team consensus into larger themes. The f...
Source: Palliative and Supportive Care - Category: Palliative Care Authors: Tags: Palliat Support Care Source Type: research