A randomized, controlled trial of meditation for women with breast cancer — ASN Events

A randomized, controlled trial of meditation for women with breast cancer (#449)

SunJoo Jang 1 , Bong-Jin Hahm
  1. Seoul National university hospital, Seoul, South Korea

From the moment of being diagnosed with breast cancer, patients must endure the psychological problems that come with the treatment process. Thus, these patients are at risk of low level of Quality of Life (QoL) especially, after completing the treatment process when the breast cancer patients have to readapt to their daily life without medical help. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the available modalities of assisting the patients in forming health patterns, such as meditation.
50 subjects were recruited and allocated via random allocation software. The experimental group (n=20) received the 8-week meditation program based on Kuksundo. The control group (n=21) received the same meditation program as the experimental group after completion of the first- and eighth-week questionnaire.
All subjects performed HADS-A, HADS-D, FACT-B to evaluate anxiety, depression, and QoL, respectively.
The collected data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows. Chi-square tests, Fisher’s exact tests, and t-tests were performed to test homogeneity of characteristics and dependent variables between the experimental and the control groups. To test hypothesis t-test was used.

The results are as follows:
1) The results of homogeneity verification of preliminary investigation data showed that there was no significant difference between the experimental and control group except power scores.
2) Compared with the control group, patients on meditation treatment showed significant reduction in scores of anxiety (t=2.74, p=.009).
3) Compared with the control group, patients on meditation treatment showed significant reduction in scores of depression (t=2.20, p=.033).
4) Compared with the control group, patients on meditation treatment showed significant improvement in scores of QoL (t=-3.45, p=.001).

The present trial results demonstrate that the 8-week meditation program significantly reduced anxiety and depression, and improved QoL in subjects with breast cancer. These results suggest that meditation has positive effects on emotion and QoL.

1 

  1. Alexander, S., Palmer, C., & Stone, P.C. (2009, Dec 4). Evaluation of screening instruments for depression and anxiety in breast cancer survivors. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from http://www.springerlink.com/content AS