No abstract

Between March and June 2004, a systematic review was carried out of the research evidence on the effectiveness of yoga for the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders. Eight studies were reviewed. They reported positive results, although there were many methodological inadequacies. Owing to the diversity of conditions treated and poor quality of most of the studies, it is not possible to say that yoga is effective in treating anxiety or anxiety disorders in general. However, there are encouraging results, particularly with obsessive compulsive disorder. Further well conducted research is necessary which may be most productive if focused on specific anxiety disorders.

AimTo systematically review and critically appraise the evidence on the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for cancer supportive care. MethodsA comprehensive search of major biomedical databases including Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library was conducted. Specialist complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) databases including AMED and CISCOM were also searched. Additionally, efforts were made to identify unpublished and ongoing research. Relevant research was categorised by study type and appraised according to study design. Clinical commentaries were obtained for each study and included in the review.

(250 words)Context: Breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety are distressing symptoms for patients with advanced lung cancer. Usually managed as isolated symptoms, they can often occur simultaneously. Previous research has often addressed management of discrete symptoms rather than considering them as a cluster, which in reality is the situation faced by patients.Objectives: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a psychoeducational intervention (PEI) on the symptom cluster of anxiety, breathlessness and fatigue, compared with usual care. Methods:A pre-test post-test 2-group randomized controlled trial was conducted.Education on symptom management and coaching in the use of progressive muscle relaxation were delivered to patients one week prior to commencing radiotherapy (RT), and repeated 3 weeks after the first. Symptom data were collected at 4 time points: prior to the intervention, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks post intervention.Results: 140 lung cancer patients receiving palliative RT were recruited from a public funded hospital in Hong Kong. Doubly multivariate MANOVA revealed a significant difference (Time *group interaction effect, p = .003) over time between the PEI and usual care control group on the pattern of change of the symptom cluster. Significant effects on the patterns of changes in breathlessness (p = .002), fatigue (p = .011), anxiety (p = .001) and functional ability (p = .000) were also found. 4Conclusions: PEI was a promising treatment for relieving the symptom cluster and each of the individually assessed symptoms. More effort needs to be directed at studying impact of interventions on common symptom clusters.

Introduction: Allotment gardening is a popular pastime which anecdotally contributes to health and wellbeing, although the extent of supportive research evidence is unclear. This systematic review investigates the question: Does allotment gardening contribute to health and wellbeing? Method: A systematic search was conducted, including the terms 'allotment', 'garden', 'health' and 'wellbeing'. Abstracts of identified papers were compared with inclusion criteria, and 10 papers were finally selected. Critical appraisal and data extraction were conducted simultaneously. Qualitative research papers predominated and were analysed thematically. Resultant themes were compared and integrated with the findings of quantitative research papers. Findings: Thematic analysis of the qualitative and quantitative papers' findings revealed five distinct health and wellbeing themes. Allotment gardening provides a stress-relieving refuge, contributes to a healthier lifestyle, creates social opportunities, provides valued contact with nature, and enables self-development. Conclusion: This review suggests that allotment gardening does indeed impact health and wellbeing. It is therefore recommended as occupational therapy for people with health problems, and as a health promoting occupation for the general population. Research particularly focused on the impact of group and therapeutic allotment gardening, so further investigations are recommended to explore the health promoting influences of everyday allotment gardening for individuals.