Responses of lung cancer survivors undergoing gamma knife surgery to supportive group psychotherapy

An increasingly important concern for clinicians who care for patients with cancers is their psychological problems and quality of life. The present study examined the efficacy of supportive group psychotherapy (SGP) on anxiety, depression and overall quality of life in patients with lung cancer undergoing gamma knife surgery (GKS). 160 patients with lung cancer undergoing GKS were randomly divided into SGP group (n = 82) and care as usual (CAU) group (n = 78). Patients in SGP group received 90 minutes’ group psychotherapy intervention once a week for 8 weeks, while patients in CAU group received usual care. Outcome measures were administered before and after the intervention and at 3-months follow-up. The primary outcome measures were the 14-item Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the secondary outcome measures were the 30-item European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30). Demographic characteristics between SGP and CAU groups showed no difference in sex, age, course of disease, years of education, marital status and profession. Psychological characteristics evaluated by HADS revealed that levels of both depression and anxiety in SGP group were significantly improved compared with that in CAU group at the end of the treatment and the improvement remained at the 3-months follow-up. In addition, EORTC QLQ-C30 demonstrated that functional scales including emotion, cognition and society...
Source: Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Research Article: Observational Study Source Type: research