RCT about mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for psychological distress in cancer patients

F. Compen, E. Bisseling, M.P.J. Schellekens, R. Donders, L. Carlson, M. Van Der Lee, A. Speckens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Background: Cancer patients may experience psychological distress, like anxiety and depressive symptoms. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (mbct) has been shown to alleviate this psychological distress. However, patients experience barriers in participating in face-to-face mbct. Individual internet-based mbct (embct) could be an alternative. Aim: To compare mbct and embct to treatment as usual (tau) for psychological distress in cancer patients. Method: 245 cancer patients with psychological distress were randomly allocated to mbct (n = 77), embct (n = 90) or tau (n = 78). Patients completed baseline (T0) and post-intervention (T1) assessments. The primary outcome was psychological distress on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Outcomes were analyzed using linear mixed modeling on the intention-to-treat sample. Since both interventions were compared to tau, the type I error rate was set to p < 0.025. Results: Compared to tau, patients reported significantly less psychological distress after both mbct (Cohen's d = 0.43, p < 0.001) and embct (Cohen's d = 0.63, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Compared to tau, mbct and embct were similarly effective in reducing psychological distress in a sample of distressed heterogeneous cancer patients.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)605-616
Number of pages12
JournalTijdschrift voor Psychiatrie
Volume61
Issue number9
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019

Keywords

  • Cancer
  • MBCT
  • Mindfulness
  • Online
  • Psychological distress

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