Dignity therapy resulted in a beneficial effect on depression and anxiety symptoms in end-of-life care. The therapeutic benefit of dignity therapy was sustained over a 30-day period. Having established its efficacy, future trials of dignity therapy may now begin, comparing it with other psychotherapeutic approaches within the context of terminal illness.

Despite being an expensive test format, evidence suggests that the use of OSCE produces reliable results. The study also suggests that one reason for the wide-scale adoption of the OSCE and the feasibility of its use in different contexts and situations is its inherent flexibility in terms of the number of students that can be assessed, the number of examiners included, the type of patients represented and the format of the examination itself, including the length of the examination, the number and duration of stations.

Objective: Dignity therapy (DT) is a short-term psychotherapy developed for patients living with a life-limiting illness. Our aim was to determine the influence of DT on symptoms of depression and anxiety in people with a life-threatening disease with high level of distress, referred to an inpatient palliative care unit.Method:This was an open-label randomized controlled trial. Sixty terminally ill patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups: intervention group (DTþ standard palliative care [SPC]) or control group (SPC alone). The main outcomes were symptoms of depression and anxiety, measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, assessed at baseline, day 4, day 15, and day 30 of follow-up.Results: Of the 60 participants, 29 were randomized to DTand 31 to SPC. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups. DT was associated with a significant decrease in depressive symptoms at day 4 and day 15 (mean ¼ 24.46, 95% CI, 26.91-2.02, p ¼ 0.001; mean¼ 23.96, 95% CI, 27.33 to 20.61; p ¼ 0.022, respectively), but not at day 30 (mean ¼ 23.33, 95% CI, 27.32-0.65, p ¼ 0.097). DTwas also associated with a significant decrease in anxiety symptoms at each follow-up (mean¼ 23.96, 95% CI, 26.66 to 21.25, p ¼ 0.005; mean¼ 26.19, 95% CI, 210.49 to 21.88, p ¼ 0.006; mean ¼ 25.07, 95% CI, 210.22 to 20.09, p ¼ 0.054, respectively).Significance of results: DT appears to have a short-term beneficial effect on the depression and anxiety symptoms that often accompany patients at the end of their lives. Future research with larger samples compared with other treatments is needed to better understand the potential benefits of this psychotherapy.