title: Emotion episodes during psychotherapy sessions among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to describe emotion episodes during early and late psychotherapy sessions among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancer and to examine whether the total number of emotion episodes during early and later sessions was associated with baseline psychological distress, dispositional emotion expressivity, and patient-rated therapeutic progress.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study utilized data from an ongoing study examining the efficacy of two psychotherapy interventions, a coping and communication intervention and a supportive counseling intervention, for women diagnosed with gynecological cancer. Emotion episode coding was completed for the first and sixth psychotherapy sessions for each patient randomized to receive psychotherapy (N = 173). Patients completed baseline survey measures of psychological distress and dispositional emotional expressivity and post-session ratings of therapeutic progress.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average number of emotion episodes was 7.4 in the first session and 5.2 episodes in the sixth session. In both sessions, the majority of emotion episodes contained only negative emotions and focused on a cancer-related topic. A higher number of emotion episodes in the first session was associated with higher psychological distress reported in the baseline survey (p = 0.02). A higher number of emotion episodes in the sixth session was associated with a higher number of emotion episodes in the first session (p < 0.001) and higher patient-rated progress as rated in the sixth session (p = 0.016).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings highlight the importance of expressed emotions, particularly negative emotions about cancer-related topics, in therapeutic progress during psychotherapy among women diagnosed with gynecological cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Myers Virtue
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Sharon L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Manne
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Darabos
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Heckman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ozga
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kissane
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rosenblum
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011613:Psychotherapy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: cancer; emotion expression; oncology; psychotherapy