Family counseling improves lives of patients and spouses coping with prost... ( Families coping with prostate cancer...)

Family counseling improves lives of patients and spouses coping with prostate cancer

Date:11/11/2007

Families coping with prostate cancer report improved quality of life from a structured support program integrated into the patients cancer management, according to a new study. The findings appear in the December 15, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. This randomized clinical trial by Dr. Laurel Northouse from the University of Michigan and co-investigators found that patients and their spouses who participated in a five-session home counseling program reported significant improvement in such areas as symptom management, hope, uncertainty and couples communication.

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. While treatment advances have reduced mortality rates since the early 1990s, the treatments themselves are often associated with serious permanent side effects, such as urinary incontinence or sexual dysfunction. These side effects have been shown to impact both the patient and his spouse, who is most often solely relied upon to provide support and home care. Studies show that spouses of prostate cancer patients report greater levels of distress and uncertainty than their husbands and that couples report difficulties in communication. The stress of providing care for a loved one has been linked to poorer health and even higher risk of death.

Dr. Northouse and her colleagues conducted a randomized control trial comparing standard patient-centered clinical care and an intensive multivariable intervention targeting patients and their spouses. This family-based intervention targeted

so-called appraisal variables that is appraisal of illness or caregiving, uncertainty, hopelessness
coping resources such as coping strategies, self-efficacy, and communication
overall or cancer-specific symptom distress and
quality of life.

In Dr. Northouses clinical trial, 113 couples were assigned to the control group and 112 to the intervention. Couples in
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Contact: Amy Molnar
amolnar@wiley.com
Wiley-Blackwell
Source:Eurekalert

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