Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety, Depression, and Fatigue in Cancer Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objective: Cancer is associated with some psychological problems that play an important role in the severity and continuity of cancer. Cancer may lead to maladaptive psychological reactions such as anxiety, depression, and fatigue. Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in cancer patients. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety, depression, and fatigue in cancer patients.
 Method: The present study was a randomized clinical trial (RCT). Of the 100 patients diagnosed with cancer, 60 patients were eligible to participate in this study according to the inclusion / exclusion criteria. They were randomly assigned into 3 groups: MBCT, CBT, and wait-list group (WLG). Afterward, the experimental groups received 8 weekly treatment sessions. All the participants fulfilled the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Cancer-Related Fatigue Scale (CFS) before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS-16 software by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA).
 Results: The results indicated a significant reduction in depression, anxiety, and fatigue scores in CBT and MBCT groups. There was a significant difference between both treatment groups with WLG in the anxiety and depression, but no significant difference was found between MBCT and CBT groups. Additionally, there was only a significant difference between the CBT group and WLG in terms of fatigue (P = 0.01).
 Conclusion: CBT and MBCT performed equally well in decreasing anxiety and depression in cancer patients, and they were significantly better than WLG. It seems that MBCT is a good alternative to CBT for decreasing emotional symptoms in cancer patients. As a result, CBT and MBCT could be considered a good addition to pharmacological treatment of cancer patients with comorbid psychological symptoms. However, CBT was preferable to MBCT in decreasing fatigue. The study was registered at the irct.ir database under registration number IRCT20180503039509N1.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and depression in cancer survivors: a meta-analysis

“…Thereafter, 2012 articles were further removed by browsing the titles and abstracts. Finally, 15 articles were included after full-text reading, including 13 quantitative analyses [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] and 2 qualitative analyses.…”

“…The sample size ranged from 29 to 294, with 1979 cases. Of the included articles, seven reported on patients with breast cancer 37,38,[42][43][44]50,51 , one on patients with melanoma 47 , five on patients with mixed cancers 39,46,48,52,53 , one on patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma 49 and one on patients with head and neck cancer 54 . The average age of the participants ranged from 37.45 to 59.7 years.…”

Integrative Oncology Care of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adults With Cancer: Society for Integrative Oncology–ASCO Guideline

“…Exceptions to this are five well-designed studies that compared an MBI to supportive-expressive group therapy, 144,145 psychoeducation, 146 or cognitive behavioral therapy. 60 Effect sizes favoring the MBI in these studies are typically smaller than those with a usual care or waitlist control (in the 0.3 range), but still show significantly greater improvements in anxiety in the MBI groups over active control.…”

“…141 Thus, the benefits of yoga for people with metastatic cancer and intervention duration in people with localized or regionally advanced cancer requires further study. Hypnosis RCT 9 Anxiety [39][40][41][42][43][44][45] Anxiety and depression 46,47 Mindfulness-based interventions SR 7 Anxiety and depression [48][49][50][51][52][53][54] RCT 7 Depression 55,56 Anxiety and depression [57][58][59][60][61] Music therapy and music-based interventions SR 4 Anxiety and depression [62][63][64][65] RCT 4 Anxiety [66][67][68] Reflexology RCT 9 Anxiety [69][70][71][72] Anxiety and depression [73][74][75][76][77] Relaxation techniques SR 4 Anxiety and depression [78][79][80][81] RCT 5 Anxiety and depression [82][83]…”

Immediate Impact of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Women with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis

“…In MBCT, elements of cognitive behavioral therapy are combined with mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) [15,16]. Studies have demonstrated that MBCT is bene cial for mitigating psychological distress in individuals with cancer [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Face-to-face group MBCT and one-on-one Internet-based MBCT are equally e cacious in reducing psychological distress among breast cancer patients.…”