A pilot study cognitive behavioral therapy and social support group interventions with newly diagnosed cancer patients

Cancer patients commonly have psychological and social problems, and several psychological approaches have been used to reduce their psychological distress. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been used in individual therapy but seldom in a group setting, and no approaches have used a comparison group to evaluate the confusing effects of social support. Also, few studies have evaluated the effects of social support by using a nonintervention group for comparison. This article describes a study of 31 newly diagnosed, psychologically distressed cancer patients, 9 of whom were consecutively assigned to a CBT group and 8, to a social support group. An additional 14 patients were allocated to a ''decliners'' nonintervention group. When the interventions ended after eight weeks, the scores of the patients in both intervention groups on standardized scales demonstrated some limited improvements in their psychological states and coping styles. However, the coping styles of the CBT patients improved significantly over those of patients in the other two groups. Thus, CBT may enable patients to overcome some of their psychosocial problems and to modify their coping styles. At the three-month follow-up, however, no significant differences were observed between the two intervention groups, possibly because two CBT patients had died. The results suggest that both interventions, unlike a nonintervention, may ''buffer'' patients against psychological distress.