This study assesses the efficacy of a group intervention in altering emotion regulation processes and promoting adjustment in women with breast cancer. Using a design with 10 alternating phases of availability of the intervention versus standard care, we assessed women participating in one of three conditions: a 12-week group intervention (N = 54); a decliner group who refused the intervention (N = 56), and a standard care group who were not offered the intervention (N = 44). The intervention included training in relaxation, guided imagery, meditation, emotional expression, and exercises promoting control beliefs and benefit-finding. Emotion regulation processes and adjustment were assessed at baseline (following diagnosis), 4 months (corresponding with the end of the intervention), 6 months, and 12 months. At 4 months, intervention participants (compared to decliners and standard care participants) reported greater increases in use of relaxation-oriented techniques, perceived control, emotional well-being, and coping efficacy, and, greater decreases in perceived risk of recurrence, cancer worry, and anxiety. Intervention participants also reported relatively greater decreases in emotional suppression from baseline to 12 months, suggesting that the intervention had a delayed impact on these tendencies. The findings suggest an emotion regulation intervention can beneficially influence emotional experiences and regulation over the first year following diagnosis.

Tendencies to suppress negative emotions have been shown to predict adjustment to cancer and cancer progression. We examined whether emotional suppression, in terms of both general and emotion-specific tendencies, predict symptom reports, mood states, and coping appraisals during adriamycin/doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide/cytoxan chemotherapy for breast cancer. Forty participants completed a measure yielding scores for anxiety suppression, anger suppression, depression suppression, and total emotional suppression. They then reported their experiences of 34 physical symptoms, mood, and coping efficacy on a daily basis for the duration of treatment (84 days). Mixed model analyses revealed that emotional suppression predicted lower reports of symptoms that are vague, well-known, and potentially embarrassing side effects of chemotherapy (e.g., fatigue and constipation). Emotional suppression and particularly anger suppression predicted higher reports of symptoms relating to immune function and cardiovascular arousal (e.g., mouth sores and heart palpitations) and with appraisals of poorer coping. The three suppression tendencies exhibited distinctive patterns of relationships with symptoms, mood, and coping appraisals, suggesting that anxiety suppression, anger suppression, and depression suppression have partially independent relationships with symptomatic and mood processes. The findings highlight the potential importance of emotional suppression for understanding symptom and coping responses during chemotherapy.

Participation in the group psychosocial support program appeared to be guided by cognitive and affective factors identified by the Common-Sense Model. Psychosocial support programs and informational materials promoting their use may attract more participants if they are tailored to focus on resolving cancer-related distress rather than on general anxiety or depression, appeal to those with high avoidance tendencies, address the role of immune function in cancer progression, and meet the needs of older participants.

The concentrated Ginkgo biloba extract, EGb 761, has previously been reported to enhance and accelerate vestibular compensation following unilateral vestibular deafferentation (UVD), in particular, compensation of the dynamic postural symptoms such as locomotor dysequilibrium. However, many of these studies have not included a complete analysis of the static symptoms of UVD, such as spontaneous nystagmus (SN), yaw head tilt (YHT), and roll head tilt (RHT), nor have they included a dose-response analysis or vehicle controls for EGb 761. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of the EGb 761 extract on static vestibular compensation in guinea pig, using a dose-response analysis and both vehicle and saline controls. Analysis of variance showed that there was a significant decrease in SN frequency ( P < 0.05) and a significant change in the rate of SN compensation ( P < 0.05), using 3 i.p. injections of EGb 761 (25, 50, or 100 mg/kg), or vehicle, or saline, at 0, 25, and 40 h post-UVD. However, post-hoc testing revealed that this was due entirely to significant differences between the saline and vehicle groups at 35, 40, and 50 h post-UVD ( P < 0.05 in all cases) and between the saline and the 100 mg/kg and 25 mg/kg EGb 761 groups at 35 and 50 h post-UVD, respectively ( P < 0.05 for both comparisons); there were no significant differences between the vehicle and drug groups at any time. YHT and RHT were not significantly different between the drug, saline, and vehicle groups. In a second set of experiments, the 50 and 100 mg/kg EGb 761 i.p. injection frequencies were doubled. However, once again, neither SN nor YHT were significantly different between the EGb 761 groups and the vehicle controls. These results suggest that 1) EGb 761 does not significantly enhance or accelerate compensation of the static symptoms of UVD in guinea pig and 2) the EGb 761 vehicle may exert some effects on its own. Therefore, EGb 761 may be of limited use in the treatment of acute vestibular dysfunction in humans.

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