Psycho-oncology
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Despite growing research interest in spirituality and health, and recommendations on the importance of spiritual care in advanced cancer and palliative care, relationships between spiritual belief and psychological health near death remain unclear. We investigated (i) relationships between strength of spiritual beliefs and anxiety and depression, intake of psychotropic/analgesic medications and survival in patients with advanced disease; and (ii) whether the strength of spiritual belief changes as death approaches. ⋯ Results suggest that although religious and spiritual beliefs might increase marginally as death approaches, they do not affect levels of anxiety or depression in patients with advanced cancer.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A tailored, supportive care intervention using systematic assessment designed for people with inoperable lung cancer: a randomised controlled trial.
People with inoperable lung cancer experience higher levels of distress, more unmet needs and symptoms than other cancer patients. There is an urgent need to test innovative approaches to improve psychosocial and symptom outcomes in this group. This study tested the hypothesis that a tailored, multidisciplinary supportive care programme based on systematic needs assessment would reduce perceived unmet needs and distress and improve quality of life. ⋯ Although a novel approach, the hypothesis that the intervention would benefit perceived unmet needs, psychological morbidity, distress and health-related quality of life was not supported overall.
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Treatment decisional preferences impact breast cancer patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and may relate to psychological variables, although many aspects of this relationship remain unknown. This prospective study aimed to assess psychological correlates of treatment decisional preferences and predictors of HRQoL in women with early non-metastatic breast cancer. ⋯ Defense mechanisms are associated with treatment decisional preferences and interact with factors predicting HRQoL in women with breast cancer. Clinicians should address the patients' anxiety and depressive symptoms and refer patients with high repression tendencies for psychological evaluation and management.
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Despite the important role that family caregivers play in providing emotional and practical support to cancer patients, relatively little is known about the family caregiver's role in treatment decision-making (TDM). We sought to investigate patients' and family caregivers' preferences for and experiences of family involvement in TDM and factors associated with preference concordance. ⋯ Most patients and family caregivers valued and expected family involvement in TDM. However, there is little explicit agreement in regard to which party in the dyad should take decisional leadership and who should play a supporting role.
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This cross-sectional study aimed to identify the prevalence and correlates of supportive care needs in testicular cancer (TC) survivors. ⋯ The majority of TC survivors reported one or more unmet needs. Unmet needs regarding existential survivorship issues were frequently reported by TC survivors despite their favorable prognosis. Relationships unmet needs were less prevalent but still more common than in breast and gynecological cancer survivors. These findings appear to be related to the young age of TC survivors. As a higher number of unmet needs is significantly associated with psychological morbidity and impaired HRQoL, interventions addressing this constellation of issues are needed.