Tatsuo Akechi|Toru Okuyama|Joji Onishi|Tatsuya Morita|Toshi A Furukawa
Psychotherapy for depression among incurable cancer patients
Nagoya City University|Nagoya City University|Nagoya University|Seirei Mikatabara General Hospital|Kyoto University
background common psychiatric diagnosis among cancer patients depression diagnosis even common among patients advanced cancer psychotherapy patientpreferred promising strategy treating depression among cancer patients several systematic reviews investigated effectiveness psychological treatment depression among cancer patients however findings conflicting review focused depression among patients incurable cancer objectives investigate effects psychotherapy treating depression among patients advanced cancer conducting systematic review randomized controlled trials rcts search methods searched cochrane pain palliative supportive care group register cochrane controlled trials register medline embase cinahl psycinfo databases september 2005 selection criteria relevant rcts comparing kind psychotherapy conventional treatment adult patients advanced cancer eligible inclusion two independent review authors identified relevant studies data collection analysis two review authors independently extracted data original reports using standardized data extraction forms two independent review authors also assessed methodological quality selected studies according recommendations previous systematic review psychological therapies cancer patients utilized ten internal validity indicators primary outcome standardized mean difference smd change baseline immediate posttreatment scores main results identified total ten rcts total 780 participants data six studies used metaanalyses 292 patients psychotherapy arm 225 patients control arm among six studies four studies used supportive psychotherapy one adopted cognitive behavioural therapy one adopted problemsolving therapy compared treatment usual psychotherapy associated significant decrease depression score smd 044 95 confidence interval ci 008 080 none studies focused patients clinically diagnosed depression authors conclusions evidence rcts moderate quality suggest psychotherapy useful treating depressive states advanced cancer patients however evidence supports effectiveness psychotherapy patients clinically diagnosed depression