The making sense of brain tumour project: A home-based psychotherapy and rehabilitation program — ASN Events

The making sense of brain tumour project: A home-based psychotherapy and rehabilitation program (#229)

Tamara Ownsworth 1 , S Chambers 1 2 , E Stewart 1 , L Casey 1 , D G Walker 3 , DH K Shum 1
  1. Behavioural Basis of Health Program, Griffith Health Institute and School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt, QLD, Australia
  2. Cancer Council QLD, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  3. NEWRO Foundation, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Rates of clinically significant psychological distress are high following diagnosis of brain tumour and remain high across the course of the disease. There is a paucity of studies investigating the effectiveness of psychological intervention for this population and no controlled clinical trials. The Making Sense of Brain Tumour (MSoBT) Project is an ongoing randomised controlled trial that commenced in 2010 and provides home-based psychotherapy and rehabilitation for people with brain tumour and family members. To date, 44 individuals with primary brain tumour (aged 21-82 years, 43% malignant) have been randomly allocated to an immediate treatment (n = 25) or waitlist control (n = 19) group. All participants were administered neuropsychological tests and baseline measures of psychosocial functioning, including mental health, existential well-being and quality of life. The immediate treatment group received 10 weekly sessions of MSoBT therapy and a post-assessment. The waitlist group received standard care over a 10 week interval and were re-assessed on outcome measures before receiving 10 weekly sessions of MSoBT therapy. All participants also received a 6-month post-intervention follow-up. Intervention outcomes were assessed using 2x2 ANOVAs and paired t-tests (pre- vs follow-up). Significant group x time interactions indicated that the immediate treatment group demonstrated a greater reduction in depressive symptoms (p<.01) and greater improvement in quality of life and existential well-being (p<.05) than wait list controls. Follow-up data will be presented to examine maintenance of program gains. Overall, the preliminary findings of the MSoBT support the efficacy of psychotherapy and rehabilitation for people with brain tumour.