Brief cognitive–behavioral and relaxation training interventions for breast cancer: A randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

Objective Women with breast cancer (BCa) report elevated distress post-surgery. Group-based cognitive-behavioral stress management (CBSM) following surgery improves psychological adaptation, though its key mechanisms remain speculative. This randomized controlled dismantling trial compared two interventions featuring elements thought to drive CBSM effects: a 5-week Cognitive-Behavioral Training (CBT) and 5-week Relaxation Training (RT) vs. a 5-week Health Education (HE) control group. Method Women with stage 0-III BCa (N = 183) were randomized to CBT, RT, or HE condition 2–10 weeks post-surgery. Psychosocial measures were collected at baseline (T1) and post-intervention (T2). Repeated-measures ANOVAs tested whether CBT and RT treatments improved primary measures of psychological adaptation and secondary measures of stress management resource perceptions from pre- to post-intervention relative to HE. Results Both CBT and RT groups reported reduced depressive affect. The CBT group reported improved emotional well-being/quality of life and less cancer-specific thought intrusions. The RT group reported improvements on illness-related social disruption. Regarding stress management resources, the CBT group reported increased reliability of social support networks, while the RT group reported increased confidence in relaxation skills. Psychological adaptation and stress management resource constructs were unchanged in the HE control group. Conclusions Non-metastatic breast cancer patients participating in two forms of brief, 5-week group-based stress management intervention after surgery showed improvements in psychological adaptation and stress management resources compared to an attention-matched control group. Findings provide preliminary support suggesting that using brief group-based stress management interventions may promote adaptation among non-metastatic breast cancer patients.

A meta‐analysis of the efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy on quality of life and psychological health of breast cancer survivors and patients

“…Further, 58 studies were excluded because they were conference abstracts or systematic reviews. Descriptive data for the 10 included studies reported data from a total of 1939 participants who were recruited from cancer centers, hospitals, or private oncology practices (Table ) …”

Stress management, leukocyte transcriptional changes and breast cancer recurrence in a randomized trial: An exploratory analysis

“…In a recently completed trial we found that a 5-week version of stress management intervention decreases psychological adversity indicators compared to the 5-week attention control in women with non-metastatic breast cancer (Gudenkauf et al, 2015). These findings open the door to the possibility that brief stress management interventions delivered during primary treatment for breast cancer may have similar biological and health effects as the longer CBSM intervention reported here.…”

Technology-based interventions for weight management: current randomized controlled trial evidence and future directions

“…Is text messaging or a web-based intervention linked to better weight loss maintenance? Dismantling trials have been useful in teasing out the most efficacious components of cognitive-behavioral treatments for a number of anxiety disorders (Kaplan & Tolin, 2011; Resick et al, 2008) and more recently, irritable bowel syndrome and cancer (Gudenkauf et al, 2015; Ljótsson et al, 2014). The use of dismantling studies could serve as a useful approach to pinpoint the essential components of eHealth weight management treatments, independent of delivery mode.…”