ObjectiveCancer has a lot of consequences such as fatigue, sleep disturbances, emotional distress, cognitive impairment and reduced physical activity. Some hypnosis‐based psychological interventions showed positive effects on fatigue, sleep and emotional distress, but generally focused on breast cancer patients. Our study aimed at assessing the effects of a group intervention combining self‐care and self‐hypnosis on quality of life of cancer patients.MethodsOur longitudinal randomized‐controlled trial assessed the benefits of the intervention first on fatigue and secondly on associated symptoms (sleep, emotional distress, cognitive impairment and reduced physical activity) of post‐treatment cancer patients, and investigated predictors of the evolution of fatigue. All variables were measured with questionnaires and an actigraph (for sleep and physical activity).ResultsNinety five women with different cancers were included in our study. Group‐by‐time effects were showed for fatigue, sleep, emotional distress and cognitive functioning: symptoms have improved in the intervention group compared to wait‐list control group. Three predictors of the evolution of fatigue were revealed: depression, anxiety and worry.ConclusionsOur group intervention had benefits for post‐treatment cancer patients' quality of life. Impacting emotional distress could be important in order to decrease fatigue. Further studies are needed to replicate our results. This intervention could be easily implemented to improve quality of life of cancer patients.Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03144154). Retrospectively registered on the 1st of May, 2017.

Background:Long-term effects of psychosocial interventions to reduce emotional distress, sleep difficulties, and fatigue of breast cancer patients are rarely examined. We aim to assess the effectiveness of three group interventions, based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), yoga, and self-hypnosis, in comparison to a control group at a 9-month follow-up.Methods:A total of 123 patients chose to participate in one of the interventions. A control group was set up for those who agreed not to participate. Emotional distress, fatigue, and sleep quality were assessed before (T0) and after interventions (T1), and at 3-month (T2) and 9-month follow-ups (T3).Results:Nine months after interventions, there was a decrease of anxiety (P=0.000), depression (P=0.000), and fatigue (P=0.002) in the hypnosis group, and a decrease of anxiety (P=0.024) in the yoga group. There were no significant improvements for all the investigated variables in the CBT and control groups.Conclusions:Our results showed that mind–body interventions seem to be an interesting psychological approach to improve the well-being of breast cancer patients. Further research is needed to improve the understanding of the mechanisms of action of such interventions and their long-term effects on quality of life.

BackgroundProstate and breast cancer can have a lot of negative consequences such as fatigue, sleep difficulties and emotional distress, which decrease quality of life. Group interventions showed benefits to emotional distress and fatigue, but most of these studies focus on breast cancer patients. However, it is important to test if an effective intervention for breast cancer patients could also have benefits for prostate cancer patients.MethodsOur controlled study aimed to compare the efficacy of a self-hypnosis/self-care group intervention to improve emotional distress, sleep difficulties, fatigue and quality of life of breast and prostate cancer patients. 25 men with prostate cancer and 68 women with breast cancer participated and were evaluated before (T0) and after (T1) the intervention.ResultsAfter the intervention, the breast cancer group showed positive effects for anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep difficulties, and global health status, whereas there was no effect in the prostate cancer group. We showed that women suffered from higher difficulties prior to the intervention and that their oncological treatments were different in comparison to men.ConclusionThe differences in the efficacy of the intervention could be explained by the baseline differences. As men in our sample reported few distress, fatigue or sleep problems, it is likely that they did not improve on these dimensions.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02569294 and NCT03423927). Retrospectively registered in October 2015 and February 2018 respectively.

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IntroductionA symptom cluster is very common among oncological patients: cancer-related fatigue (CRF), emotional distress, sleep difficulties, pain, and cognitive difficulties. Clinical applications of interventions based on non-ordinary states of consciousness, mostly hypnosis and meditation, are starting to be investigated in oncology settings. They revealed encouraging results in terms of improvements of these symptoms. However, these studies often focused on breast cancer patients, with methodological limitations (e.g., small sample size, no control group, and no follow-up). Another non-ordinary state of consciousness may also have therapeutic applications in oncology: self-induced cognitive trance (SICT). It seems to differ from hypnosis and meditation, as it involves the body more directly. Thus, investigating its clinical applications, along with hypnosis and meditation interventions, could improve available therapeutic options in oncology. This article details the study protocol of a preference-based longitudinal controlled superiority trial aiming to assess the effectiveness of 3 group interventions (hypnosis, meditation, and SICT) to improve oncological patients’ quality of life, and more specifically CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties (primary outcomes).Methods and analysisA power analysis required a total sample of 160 patients. Main inclusion criteria are: cancer diagnosis, active treatments completed for less than a year, no practice of hypnosis, meditation, or SICT, and presence of at least one of these four symptoms: fatigue, sleep difficulties, depression, or anxiety. Each participant will choose the intervention in which they want to participate (hypnosis, mindful self-compassion meditation, SICT, or no intervention—control group). To test the effectiveness of the interventions, data will be collected by questionnaires and neurobiological measures and directly from the medical record at four time points: before inclusion in the study (baseline); immediately after the intervention; and at 3- and 12-month follow-up. The longitudinal data in each group will then be measured.DiscussionIn addition to standard cancer therapies, there is a growing interest from patients in complementary approaches, such as hypnosis, meditation, and SICT. The results of this study will be useful to increase knowledge about short- and long-term effectiveness of 3 group interventions for CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties in patients with different cancers.Clinical Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov/ (NCT04873661). Retrospectively registered on the 29th of April 2021. url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04873661