Abstract
Adjuvant psychological therapy (APT) is a newly developed cognitive behavioural treatment which has been designed specifically to improve the quality of life of cancer patients by alleviating emotional distress and inducing a fighting spirit. We report a phase I/II study which evaluates APT in routine clinical practice. A consecutive series of 44 outpatients with various cancers referred for psychiatric consultation and receiving APT at the Royal Marsden Hospital was studied. Standardised self-report questionnaires were used to measure anxiety, depression and four principal categories of mental adjustment to cancer, namely, fighting spirit, helplessness, anxious preoccupation and fatalism. Statistical comparisons between pre-therapy scores and scores after an average of five APT sessions revealed significant improvement in anxiety, depression, fighting spirit, anxious preoccupation and helplessness. Fatalism scores showed the same trend, but the changes were smaller. Patients with advanced disease showed as much improvement as those with local or locoregional disease. Present results indicate improvement in both psychiatric symptoms and mental adjustment to cancer associated with APT. Whether this association is causal remains to be determined by randomised controlled trials. Such a trial is in progress.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 24 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $10.79 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Greer, S., Moorey, S. & Baruch, J. Evaluation of adjuvant psychological therapy for clinically referred cancer patients. Br J Cancer 63, 257–260 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1991.60
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1991.60
This article is cited by
-
Restraint stress abates the antioxidant potential of melatonin on dimethyl benz (a) anthracene (DMBA) induced carcinogenesis
Medical Oncology (2020)
-
Pre-intervention distress moderates the efficacy of psychosocial treatment for cancer patients: a meta-analysis
Journal of Behavioral Medicine (2010)
-
Psychosocial interventions for patients with advanced cancer – a systematic review of the literature
British Journal of Cancer (2004)
-
Oncology professionals and patient requests for cancer support services
Supportive Care in Cancer (2004)
-
Psychotherapeutic interventions in cancer patients
The Chinese-German Journal of Clinical Oncology (2003)