Short-term group cognitive behavioral intervention in cancer patients

Abstract

Objective To explore the effect of cognitive behavioral intervention on quality of life and distress of cancer patients. Methods The research was a random control study, and computer randomized grouping, the experimental group and control group contained 64 cases, 66 cases, respectively. The control group only accepted health education, while experimental group accepted cognitive behavioral intervention twice a week. Before and after the research, the patients were investigated with quality of life and distress scale. Results After the study of cognitive behavioral intervention, quality of life of experimental group scored (71.7±17.5) points which showed greater improvement than the control group scored (63.9±18.3) points (t=2.2, P<0.05), the distress score of experimental group was (2.6±0.6) points which was significant lower than the control group scored (3.9±0.7) points (t=11.8,P<0.05), and the proportions of distress problems contained anxiety [42.2% (27/64)], pain [29.7% (19/64)], depression [35.9% (23/64)] and sleep [23.4% (15/64)] in the experimental group were all significant lower than the control group [60.6% (40/66), 47.0% (31/66), 53.0% (35/66), 39.4% (26/66)](χ2=4.4, 4.1, 3.9, 4.5,P<0.05). Conclusions Short-term group cognitive behavioral intervention can alleviate the distress and pain, improve their negative emotions and sleep, eventually improve the quality of life of cancer patients. Key words: Neoplasms; Quality of life; Cognitive therapy; Distress