title: Effects of psycho-oncologic interventions on emotional distress and quality of life in adult patients with cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to evaluate the effects of psycho-oncologic interventions on emotional distress and quality of life in adult patients with cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature databases were searched to identify randomized controlled trials that compared a psycho-oncologic intervention delivered face-to face with a control condition. The main outcome measures were emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and quality of life. Outcomes were evaluated for three time periods: post-treatment, ≤ 6 months, and more than 6 months. We applied standard meta-analytic techniques to analyze both published and unpublished data from the retrieved studies. Sensitivity analyses and meta-regression were used to explore reasons for heterogeneity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We retrieved 198 studies (covering 22,238 patients) that report 218 treatment-control comparisons. Significant small-to-medium effects were observed for individual and group psychotherapy and psychoeducation. These effects were sustained, in part, in the medium term (≤ 6 months) and long term (> 6 months). Short-term effects were evident for relaxation training. Studies that preselected participants according to increased distress produced large effects at post-treatment. A moderator effect was found for the moderator variable "duration of the intervention," with longer interventions producing more sustained effects. Indicators of study quality were often not reported. Small-sample bias indicative of possible publication bias was found for some effects, particularly with individual psychotherapy and relaxation training.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Various types of psycho-oncologic interventions are associated with significant, small-to-medium effects on emotional distress and quality of life. These results should be interpreted with caution, however, because of the low quality of reporting in many of the trials.
authors: Department of Medical Psychology, Medical Sociology and Rehabilitation Sciences, and Comprehensive Cancer Center Mainfranken, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. h.faller@uni-wuerzburg.de
authors: Hermann
authors: H
authors: Faller
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Schuler
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Richard
authors: Ulrike
authors: U
authors: Heckl
authors: Joachim
authors: J
authors: Weis
authors: Roland
authors: R
authors: Küffner
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome