Enhanced counselling for women undergoing BRCA1/2 testing: Impact on knowledge and psychological distress-results from a randomised clinical trial.
This randomised controlled trial evaluated the impact of an enhanced counselling (EC) intervention on knowledge about the heritability of breast and ovarian cancer and distress, as a function of BRCA test result, among high-risk women. Before deciding about whether or not to undergo genetic testing, participants were randomly assigned to the EC intervention (N = 69), designed to promote cognitive and affective processing of cancer risk information (following the standard individualised counselling session), or to the control condition (N = 65), which involved standard individualised counselling followed by a general health information session to control for time and attention. Women in the EC group exhibited greater knowledge than women in the control group, 1 week after the intervention. Further, at the affective level, the intervention was found to be the most beneficial for women testing positive: specifically 1 week after test result disclosure, women in the intervention group who tested positive experienced lower levels of distress than women in the control group who tested positive. The findings suggest that the design of counselling aids should include a component that explicitly activates the individual's cognitive-affective processing system.
Roussi
Pagona
P
Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Sherman
Kerry Anne
KA
Miller
Suzanne
S
Buzaglo
Joanne
J
Daly
Mary
M
Taylor
Alan
A
Ross
Eric
E
Godwin
Andrew
A
D019313:BRCA1 Protein / Q000235:genetics*; D024682:BRCA2 Protein / Q000235:genetics*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005817:Genetic Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005820:Genetic Testing / Q000523:psychology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics
D019313:BRCA1 Protein; D024682:BRCA2 Protein