Psycho-oncology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Social support as a moderator in the relationship between intrusive thoughts and anxiety among Spanish-speaking Latinas with breast cancer.
Intrusive thoughts, defined as unwanted and recurrent thoughts about a stressful experience, are associated with psychological distress in women with breast cancer. This study assessed moderating effects of various social support dimensions on associations between intrusive thoughts and psychological distress among Latina breast cancer survivors. ⋯ Tangible and affectionate support have protective effects on anxiety symptoms among Spanish-speaking Latina breast cancer survivors experiencing intrusive thoughts, but not depression symptoms.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Exploratory analysis of treatment response trajectories in the PRISM trial: Models of psychosocial care.
Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer are at high risk of negative psychosocial outcomes. Promoting Resilience in Stress Management (PRISM), a novel, brief, skill-based intervention, has demonstrated efficacy in improving psychosocial well-being for AYAs. We utilized data from a recent randomized trial of PRISM versus usual care (UC) to categorize and explore group differences in change trajectories of patient reported outcomes (PROs) over time. ⋯ PRISM shows evidence of both a prevention effect and an intervention effect. Thus, PRISM may serve as a viable prevention and early intervention model for psychosocial care.
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The present study aimed to identify the most important protective factors predicting caregivers' depressive symptoms among factors of caregivers' dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion, compassion from others, and patients' dispositional mindfulness and their moderator effects on the relationship between caregiving stress and depressive symptoms. ⋯ Caregivers' mindful awareness and self-compassionate action were protective factors, which mitigate the impact of caregiving stress on their depressive symptoms. Therefore, the future supportive program aims at training the competencies of self-compassionate action with mindful awareness, which may enhance caregivers' coping resources.
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Social support may have a positive impact on health outcomes for patients and caregivers, but the extent to which social support and health outcomes are interrelated for both is unknown. We examine the dyadic interrelationships between social support and health among cancer patients and their caregivers. ⋯ Social support has a positive impact on patient and caregiver perceived health across the cancer trajectory, and these effects may differ by cancer site and time. Future research and translational efforts are needed to identify effective ways to bolster both patient and caregiver social support and to determine critical moments for intervention.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
The contagion of optimism: The relationship between patient optimism and palliative care clinician overestimation of survival among hospitalized patients with advanced cancer.
Clinicians frequently overestimate survival time among seriously ill patients, and this can result in medical treatment at end of life that does not reflect the patient's preferences. Little is known, however, about the sources of clinicians' optimistic bias in survival estimation. Related work in social networks and experimental psychology demonstrates that psychological states-such as optimism-can transfer from one person to another. ⋯ Patients' optimism may have some influence over their clinicians' prognostic judgments.