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1st
appeared 17 December 1998
Cancer Center to Lead First Study of Coping
Skills in Prostate Cancer Patients
Although psychosocial interventions for cancer patients
-- such as support groups, individual counseling and psychiatric evaluation -- have become
increasingly common over the past two decades and have been shown to greatly improve a
patient's quality of life, they are rarely made a routine part of cancer care, said a UCSF
cancer psychologist.
One reason for this is practicality. Most of the psychosocial interventions that have been
studied and proven effective are too expensive, too demanding of patient time, and too
far-reaching in scope to be easily and routinely offered as part of cancer care, said
Andrew Kneier, UCSF clinical cancer psychologist.
In addition, while individual counseling and psychiatric consultation are often available
to patients while they are receiving treatment in the hospital, these services are seldom
integrated into a comprehensive program of care for cancer outpatients, he said.
Kneier is collaborating with the UCSF Urologic Oncology Practice, part of UCSF Stanford
Health Care, headed by Peter Carroll, to evaluate the efficacy of a short-term counseling
intervention in patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. Patients who participate in
the study will receive three one-hour individual counseling sessions that are tailored to
their needs. The sessions will focus specifically on supporting and/or improving how they
are coping with problems or challenges that are most relevant to their situation.
"This is the first study of its kind with prostate cancer patients," Kneier
said. "What is unique about our study is that we are trying to help people in coping
with their cancer in just three sessions to establish a realistic and practical model that
other cancer centers around the country can adopt."
He added that the study has the potential to demonstrate for the first time that a
short-term, individually tailored counseling program for newly diagnosed prostate cancer
patients has positive benefits with respect to coping, emotional well-being,
health-related quality of life, resource utilization, and patient satisfaction.
After reviewing the vast amount of research on coping strategies and drawing upon the
experiences of cancer patients, Kneier and colleague Ernest Rosenbaum, UCSF clinical
professor of medicine, developed ten positive coping strategies that they believe to be
the most effective for newly diagnosed and terminally ill cancer patients. These ten steps
aim to help a patient's psychological adjustment with cancer that will ultimately improve
quality of life and make them feel less vulnerable.
The ten coping strategies are described in a booklet that will be given to study
participants during their first counseling session. During the subsequent intervention
sessions, they will discuss with a psychologist how any of the coping strategies may be
applicable to their own situation. The coping strategy booklet is also available to all
UCSF cancer patients.
Links:
Full press release
Andrew Kneier page on Dermatology
website
Urologic
Oncology
Seed Funding for Prostate
Cancer Research
Source: Abby Sinnott, News
Services |
