Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T21:13:59.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psycho-oncology: a coming of age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Charles Montgomery
Charles Montgomery*
Affiliation:
Exeter & District Community Health Service, Wonford House Hospital, Dryden Road, Wonford, Exeter EX2 5AF
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Every once in a while there is a mini renaissance in an area of medicine. The flowering of research that has taken place world-wide in the field of psycho-oncology in the last decade is one such example. This deepening interest in all the different psychological aspects of cancer, with the prevention of psychiatric morbidity and the development of a healthy adaptation being the main outcome aims, has led to hundreds of publications in recent years, along with the launching of two high-quality journals, the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology and the Journal of Psycho-Oncology. There have been numerous robust research findings proving the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in cancer patients on a range of outcome measures (Stein et al, 1993; Fawzy et al, 1995). The search for conclusive evidence of the positive effects of psychological therapy on disease progression and hence survival rates has also developed, becoming a holy grail for researchers in mind/body medicine, and has been brought tantalisingly within reach by a number of well-controlled trials (Spiegel et al, 1989; Richardson et al, 1990; Fawzy et al, 1993; Ratcliffe et al, 1995).

Type
Special Articles
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 7: The Journal of Trends in Psychiatric Practice , July 1999 , pp. 431 - 435
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

Barraclough, J. E. (1997) Psycho-oncology and the role of the psychiatrist in cancer patient care. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 1, 189 195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butow, P. N., Kazemi, J. N., Beeney, L. J., et al (1996) When the diagnosis is cancer. Cancer, 77, 2630 2637.3.0.CO;2-S>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calman, K. & Hine, D. (1995) A Policy Framework for Commissioning Cancer Services . A Report by the Expert Advisory Group on Cancer to the Chief Medical Officers of England and Wales. London: Department of Health and Welsh Office.Google Scholar
Cantwell, B. M. & Ramirez, A. J. (1997) Doctor-patient communication: a study of junior house officers. Medical Education, 31, 17 21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, E., Mogos, I. & Toma, T. (1985) Efficacy and safety of mianserin in the treatment of depression in women with cancer. Acta Psychiatrtca Scandinavica, 72, 85 92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, A. J., Edmonds, C. V. I., Jenkins, G., et al (1995) A randomised comparison of two forms of a brief, group, psychoeducational programme for cancer patients: weekly sessions versus a ‘weekly intensive’. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 25, 171 187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, A. J. & Edmonds, C. V. I. (1996) Group psychological therapy for cancer patients: a point of view and discussion of the hierarchy of options. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 26, 51 82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Die Trill, M. & Holland, J. (1995) A model curriculum training in psycho-oncology. Psycho-oncology, 4, 169 182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derogatis, L. R., Morrow, G. R., Fetting, J., et al (1983) The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among cancer patients. Journal of the American Medical Association, 249, 751 757.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, D. L., McCartney, C. F. & Haggerty, J. J. (1988) Treatment of depression in cancer patients is associated with better life adaptation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 50, 72 76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fallowfield, L. (1990) The Quality of life. The Missing Measurement in Health Care. London: Souvenir Press.Google Scholar
Fallowfield, L. (1995) Psychosocial interventions in cancer. British Medical Journal, 311, 1316 1317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fallowfield, L., Ford, S. & Lewis, S. (1995) No news is not good for news: information preferences of patients with cancer. Psycho-oncology, 4, 197 202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fawzy, F. I., Fawzy, N. W., Hyun, C. S., et al (1993) Malignant melanoma. Effects of an early structured psychiatric intervention, coping and affective state on recurrence and survival 6 years later. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 681 689.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fawzy, F. I., Fawzy, N. W., Arndt, L. A., et al (1995) Critical review of psychosocial interventions in cancer care. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52, 100 113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greer, S. (1994) Psycho-oncology: its aims, achievements and future tasks. Psycho-Oncology, 3, 87 102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, S., Moorey, S. A. & Watson, M. (1989) Patients' adjustment to cancer: the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale vs clinical ratings. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 33, 373 377.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greer, S., Moorey, S. A., Baruch, J. D. R., et al (1992) Adjuvant psychological therapy for patients with cancer: a prospective randomised trial. British Medical Journal, 304, 675 680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, J. C. (1992) Psycho-oncology: overview, obstacles and opportunities. Psycho-Oncology, 1, 1 13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J. (1994) Psychotherapy – a luxury the NHS cannot afford? British Medical Journal, 309, 1070 1072.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
House, A. (1995) Psychiatric disorders, inappropriate health service utilization and the role of consultation-liaison psychiatry. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 39, 799 802.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarrett, S. R., Ramirez, A. J., Richards, M. A., et al (1992) Measuring coping in breast cancer. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 36, 593 602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kissane, D. W. & Smith, G. C. (1996) Consultation-liaison psychiatry in an Australian oncology unit. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 30, 397 404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maguire, P., Tait, A., Brooke, M., et al (1980) Effective counselling on the psychiatric morbidity associated with mastectomy. British Medical Journal, 281, 1454 1456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maguire, P. & Falconer, A. (1988) How to improve the counselling skills of doctors and nurses in cancer care. British Medical Journal, 297, 847 849.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maguire, P. & Howell, A. (1995) Improving the psychological care of cancer patients. In Psychiatric Aspects of Physical Disease (eds House, A., Mayou, R. & Mallinson, C.). London: Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists.Google Scholar
Middelboe, T., Ovesen, L., Mortensen, E. L., et al (1994) Depressive symptoms in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: a psychometric analysis. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 61, 171 177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parle, M., Jones, B. & Maguire, P. (1996) Maladaptive coping and affective disorders among cancer patients. Psychological Medicine, 26, 735 744.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramirez, A. J., Graham, J., Richards, M. A., et al (1996) Mental health of hospital consultants: the effects of stress and satisfaction at work. Lancet, 347, 724 728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ratcliffe, M. A., Dawson, A. A. & Walker, L. G. (1995) Eysenck Personality Inventory L-scores in patients with Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Psycho-oncology, 4, 39 45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Razavi, D., Allilaire, J-F., Smith, M., et al (1996) The effect of fluoxetine on anxiety and depression symptoms in cancer patients. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 94, 205 210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, J. L., Shelton, D. R., Krailo, M., et al (1990) The effect of compliance with treatment on survival among patients with haematologic malignancies. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 8, 356 364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, G. A. (1997) Prevention of burn-out. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 3, 282 289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists (1995) The Psychological Care of Medical Patients: Recognition of Need and Service Provision, Council Report CR35. London: Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists.Google Scholar
Rowland, J. H. & Holland, J. C. (1989) Intrapersonal resources: coping. In Handbook of Psycho-Oncology: Psychological Care of the Patient with Cancer (eds Holland, J. C. & Rowland, J. H.), pp. 44 57. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Spiegel, D. (1996) Cancer and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 168 (suppl. 30), 109 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegel, D., Bloom, J. R., Kraemer, H. C., et al (1989) Effect of psychosocial treatment on survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Lancet, ii, 888 891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, S., Hermanson, K. & Spiegel, D. (1993) New directions in psycho-oncology. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 6, 838 846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twillman, R. K. & Manetto, C. (1998) Concurrent psychotherapy and phamacotherapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety in cancer patients. Psycho-Oncology, 7, 285 290.3.0.CO;2-G>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Heeringen, K. & Zivkov, M. (1996) Pharmacological treatment of depression in cancer patients. A placebo-controlled study of mianserin. British Journal of Psychiatry, 169, 440 443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, L. G., Walker, M. B. & Ogston, K. (1999) Psychological, clinical and pathological effects of relaxation training and guided imagery during primary chemotherapy. British Journal of Cancer, 80, 262 268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.