Psychoeducation Intervention to Improve Adjustment to Cancer among Turkish Stage I-II Breast Cancer Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Psycho-educational interventions are not a substitute for analgesics, but they may serve as adjuvant therapy.Nurses can provide psychoeducational programmes to cancer patients to assist them in optimizing behavior thatstrengthen adjustment. The aim here was to determine the effects of psychoeducation on levels of adjustment tocancer in stage I-II breast cancer patients who met the study criteria (experimental group: 38 women, controlgroup:38 women). The psychoeducational program consisted of eight 90 minute weekly sessions and data werecollected using a questionnaire and the Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale three times: before, six weeks andsix months after the intervention. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistical methods as wellas the Chi square test, the Mann Whitney U test, repeated measures analysis of variance, the matched pairs ttest and the Post Hoc Bonferroni test. The results at 6 weeks and 6 months after the program revealed that theexperimental group had higher levels of “fighting spirit”, lower levels of “helplessness/hopelessness, anxiouspreoccupation and fatalism” but there was no significant change in levels of “avoidance/denial” compared to thecontrol group with regard to adjustment to cancer. In this study, psychoeducation was shown to cause positivechanges in levels of adjustment to cancer in breast cancer patients