Effects of an intervention combining self-care and self-hypnosis on fatigue and associated symptoms in post-treatment cancer patients: A randomized-controlled trial

Charlotte Grégoire; Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville; Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse; Vanessa Charland-Verville; Guy Jerusalem; Sylvie Willems; Isabelle Bragard

doi:10.1002/pon.5395

Effects of an intervention combining self-care and self-hypnosis on fatigue and associated symptoms in post-treatment cancer patients: A randomized-controlled trial

Psychooncology. 2020 Jul;29(7):1165-1173. doi: 10.1002/pon.5395. Epub 2020 Apr 24.

Authors

Charlotte Grégoire¹, Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville², Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse², Vanessa Charland-Verville³, Guy Jerusalem⁴, Sylvie Willems⁵, Isabelle Bragard⁶

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Psychology, Speech therapy and Educational Sciences, and Sensation and Perception Research Group, GIGA Research, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
² Interdisciplinary Algology Centre, CHU Liège, and Sensation and Perception Research Group, GIGA Research, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
³ GIGA-Consciousness, Coma Science Group & Neurology Department, University and CHU of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
⁴ Medical Oncology Department, CHU Liège and University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
⁵ Faculty of Psychology, Speech therapy and Educational Sciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
⁶ Research and Continuing Education Departement, and CRIG Research Center, Haute Ecole Libre Mosane (HELMo), Liège, Belgium.

PMID: 32297396
DOI: 10.1002/pon.5395

Abstract

Objective: Cancer has a lot of consequences such as fatigue, sleep disturbances, emotional distress, cognitive impairment and reduced physical activity. Some hypnosis-based psychological interventions showed positive effects on fatigue, sleep and emotional distress, but generally focused on breast cancer patients. Our study aimed at assessing the effects of a group intervention combining self-care and self-hypnosis on quality of life of cancer patients.

Methods: Our longitudinal randomized-controlled trial assessed the benefits of the intervention first on fatigue and secondly on associated symptoms (sleep, emotional distress, cognitive impairment and reduced physical activity) of post-treatment cancer patients, and investigated predictors of the evolution of fatigue. All variables were measured with questionnaires and an actigraph (for sleep and physical activity).

Results: Ninety five women with different cancers were included in our study. Group-by-time effects were showed for fatigue, sleep, emotional distress and cognitive functioning: symptoms have improved in the intervention group compared to wait-list control group. Three predictors of the evolution of fatigue were revealed: depression, anxiety and worry.

Conclusions: Our group intervention had benefits for post-treatment cancer patients' quality of life. Impacting emotional distress could be important in order to decrease fatigue. Further studies are needed to replicate our results. This intervention could be easily implemented to improve quality of life of cancer patients. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03144154). Retrospectively registered on the 1st of May, 2017.

Keywords: cancer; emotional distress; fatigue; group intervention; hypnosis; oncology; self-care; sleep difficulties.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Anxiety
Breast Neoplasms / complications*
Breast Neoplasms / psychology*
Breast Neoplasms / therapy
Cognition
Exercise
Fatigue / etiology
Fatigue / therapy*
Female
Humans
Hypnosis / methods*
Middle Aged
Quality of Life / psychology
Self Care / methods*
Sleep / physiology
Sleep Wake Disorders / etiology
Sleep Wake Disorders / therapy
Stress, Psychological
Surveys and Questionnaires
Treatment Outcome

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT03144154