Effectiveness of brief psychosocial support on mental health of cancer patients and their relatives: A non-randomized controlled evaluation of cancer counseling centers

Purpose: Patients with cancer and their relatives often experience a deterioration of mental health while dealing with the consequences of the disease. The aim of the present study was to evaluate changes of mental health during and after brief psychosocial support at cancer counselling centers. Methods: In this non-randomized controlled trial n = 885 participants were recruited and n = 449 were eligible for the analysis. The intervention group (IG, n = 264) was recruited at two cancer counselling centers in Germany. The control group (CG, n = 195) were cancer patients or relatives who did not seek support at one of the aforementioned cancer counseling centers. To compare differences between IG and CG across three points in time (before the first counseling session and subsequently after two twelve weeks), a linear mixed model analysis (LLM) was performed. The primary outcome was distress; secondary outcomes were anxiety and depressive symptoms, well-being, cancer specific and generic quality of life (QoL), self-efficacy, and fatigue. Results: The LLM showed significant differences between IG and CG at follow-up for distress ( d = 0.36), depressive ( d = 0.22) and anxiety symptoms ( d = 0.22), well-being ( d = 0.26), quality of life (QoL mental, d = 0.26), cancer specific QoL (symptoms, d = 0.13) and QoL (global, d = 0.27). The changes were not significant for QoL (physical), cancer specific QoL (functional) and fatigue. Conclusion: The results suggest that brief psychosocial support is associated with the improvement of mental health of cancer patients and their relatives after three months.The study was approved by the Center of Psychosocial Medicine (LPEK) at the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf on 22 nd of August 2018 (No: LPEK-007). The study was registered prior to data collection with the German Registration of Clinical Trials (DRKS, ID: DRKS00015516) in September 2018.