Psychotherapy Can Be Promising in Advanced Cancer Patients
April 20th, 2008 Posted in alternative treatmentsAccording to a study at the Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, psychotherapy can be a promising treatment for ameliorating depressive states in advanced cancer patients if they prefer to receive it.
Supportive group therapy diminished depression almost as much as drug treatments, so as a primary type of treatment patients were encouraged to discuss their deepest fears and feelings and to help each other cope with them.
The authors found that the benefits of this kind of treatment were only slightly less than those found in clinical trials of antidepressant drugs in general patient populations. They didn’t examine whether psychotherapy could improve survival or response to cancer treatment.
The review appears in the current issue of the journal The Cochrane Library.