Deakin home > Deakin University Library > Deakin Research Online > Beating the blues after cancer : randomised control trial of a tele-based psychological intervention for high distress patients and carers
Openly accessible

Beating the blues after cancer : randomised control trial of a tele-based psychological intervention for high distress patients and carers

Chambers, Suzanne K., Girgis, Afaf, Occhipinti, Stefano, Hutchinson, Sandy, Turner, Jane, Carter, Rob and Dunn, Jeff 2009, Beating the blues after cancer : randomised control trial of a tele-based psychological intervention for high distress patients and carers, BMC Cancer, vol. 9, no. 189, pp. 1-7.

Attached Files (Some files may be inaccessible until you login with your Deakin Research Online credentials)
Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads
carter-beatingtheblues-2009.pdf Published version application/pdf 215.76KB 38

Title Beating the blues after cancer : randomised control trial of a tele-based psychological intervention for high distress patients and carers
Author(s) Chambers, Suzanne K.
Girgis, Afaf
Occhipinti, Stefano
Hutchinson, Sandy
Turner, Jane
Carter, Rob
Dunn, Jeff
Journal name BMC Cancer
Volume number 9
Issue number 189
Start page 1
End page 7
Publisher BioMed Central Ltd.
Place of publication London, England
Publication date 2009
ISSN 1471-2407
Summary Background : The diagnosis and treatment of cancer is a major life stress such that approximately 35% of patients experience persistent clinically significant distress and carers often experience even higher distress than patients. This paper presents the design of a two arm randomised controlled trial with patients and carers who have elevated psychological distress comparing minimal contact self management vs. an individualised tele-based cognitive behavioural intervention.

Methods/design : 140 patients and 140 carers per condition (560 participants in total) will been recruited after being identified as high distress through caller screening at two community-based cancer helplines and randomised to 1) a single 30-minute telephone support and education session with a nurse counsellor with self management materials 2) a tele-based psychologist delivered five session individualised cognitive behavioural intervention. Session components will include stress reduction, problem-solving, cognitive challenging and enhancing relationship support and will be delivered weekly. Participants will be assessed at baseline and 3, 6 and 12 months after recruitment. Outcome measures include: anxiety and depression, cancer specific distress, unmet psychological supportive care needs, positive adjustment, overall Quality of life.

Discussion : The study will provide recommendations about the efficacy and potential economic value of minimal contact self management vs. tele-based psychologist delivered cognitive behavioural intervention to facilitate better psychosocial adjustment and mental health for people with cancer and their carers.
Notes This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Language eng
Field of Research 111714 Mental Health
Socio Economic Objective 920209 Mental Health Services
HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
Copyright notice ©2009, Chambers et al.
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30021328

Connect to link resolver
 
Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in Deakin Research Online is owned by the author, with all rights reserved.

Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au.

Versions
Version Filter Type
Citation counts: TR Web of Science Citation Count  Cited 3 times in TR Web of Science
Scopus Citation Count Cited 4 times in Scopus
Access Statistics: 411 Abstract Views, 38 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics
Created: Fri, 11 Dec 2009, 12:55:16 EST by Sally Morrigan