PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on depression, anxiety, self care behavior and quality of life in cancer patients.
METHODS
Two thousand and eighty three abstracts were identified through six electronic databases (1980 to June 2012) in Korea. Seventeen studies involving 679 participants met the inclusion criteria for meta analysis. Two authors independently assessed trial quality by Cochrane's Risk of Bias and Methodological Items for Non Randomized Studies and extracted data. The data were analyzed by the RevMan 5.2 program of Cochrane library.
RESULTS
Overall, study quality was moderate to high. CBT was conducted for a mean of 4.2 weeks, 7 sessions and an average of 36.1-minutes per session. CBT was effective for depression (d=-0.85; 95% CI=-1.09, -0.61), anxiety (d=-0.52; 95% CI=-0.75, -0.29), self care behavior (d=-1.34; 95% CI=-1.93, -0.74), and quality of life (d=-0.42; 95% CI=-0.80, -0.04). Publication bias was not detected as evaluated by funnel plot and Egger's test.
CONCLUSION
CBT has small to large effects on depression, anxiety, self care and quality of life. These finding suggests that various CBT interventions can assist cancer patients in reducing emotional distress and improving self care and quality of life.

Citations

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