Psychotherapy is proven to boost quality of life

While researchers try to confirm whether psychosocial interventions can help cancer patients live longer, many believe that even if they don't, patients can benefit greatly from working with therapists.

"The real issue, whether or not [group therapy] is making them live longer, is that it's helping them live better," says Stanford University's David Spiegel, MD, who has led group therapy with cancer patients for more than 20 years. "One woman in one of my groups said, 'I want someone who cares about me the way my mother does. And now I have a mother and it's my group.'"

Spiegel and many other researchers have found that group therapy that includes cancer education and social support greatly improves patients' quality of life, including improvements in overall mood, interactions with family and overall energy level. And that's critical for people who may be dying, says psychologist Barbara Andersen, PhD, of Ohio State University.

"Many of the new chemotherapies don't change survival--at least half of women with breast cancer don't make it past five years--but they do lengthen the period you'll be disease free," she explains. "So you'll have a disease-free interval of 24 months instead of eight or 12 months. It's pretty important to enhance quality of life during the time they're alive."

Besides, there's nothing to say that improving quality of life isn't the way in which psychosocial interventions work to prolong life, Andersen adds.

"Good things go along with positive affect," she says, including an increased willingness to exercise and participate in other healthy behaviors.

"Regardless of whether psychosocial interventions per se lengthen life, they should really be encouraged because they clearly make an impact on quality of life measures," says Michael Stefanek, PhD, director of the Basic Biobehavioral Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute.

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