The aim of the study is to compare the benefits of three types of individual treatment programs for cancer patients: Meaning-Centered counseling, Supportive counseling, and Enhanced Usual Care. We would like to train therapists in administering these types of counseling, so that they have expertise to work on the study. The therapists will administer either the Meaning-Centered counseling or the Supportive counseling, as part of their training. Many cancer patients use counseling or other resources to help with the emotional burden of their illnesses. Counseling often helps them cope with cancer by giving them a place to express their feelings. "Meaning-Centered" counseling aims to teach cancer patients how to maintain or even increase a sense of meaning and purpose in their lives, despite cancer. "Supportive" counseling is intended to help the patient cope with cancer by giving them a place to express their feelings and get support. Enhanced Usual Care is intended to offer the patient referrals and resources that are matched to their individual needs in addition to the care they are already receiving at MSKCC.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
346
IMCP is based on the principles of Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy, and is designed to help patients with advanced cancer sustain or enhance a sense of meaning, peace and purpose in their lives even as they approach the end of life. IMCP is structured as a 7-session (1-hour weekly sessions) individual intervention that utilizes a mixture of didactics, discussion and experiential exercises that focus around particular themes related to meaning and advanced cancer. In addition we will be asking patients in the IMCP arm to complete an optional weekly session rating survey
The ISP intervention utilized as the comparison treatment condition in this study, is adapted from the Supportive Group Psychotherapy manualized intervention developed by David Payne (1997) and adapted by Drs. Kissane, Breitbart and colleagues into the ISP manualized intervention. This intervention is a 7-session individual supportive psychotherapy utilizing an approach to supportive psychotherapy based on models described by Rogers. The essential components of supportive psychotherapy are integrated into this manualized intervention, including: reassurance, explanation, guidance, suggestion, encouragement, affecting changes in patient's environment, and permission for catharsis.
We are therefore including what we refer to as an "enhanced" usual care arm to this randomized controlled trial to address the ethical issues raised by utilizing a usual care condition in a vulnerable advanced cancer population. Participants will receive feedback about their level of distress (based on the DT administered at screening) and given appropriate targeted referrals based on levels of distress and problem areas endorsed. Participants will be given a letter with a list of appropriate referrals.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York, United States
Participant Meaning Making Scores Using the Life Attitude Profile-Revised (LAP-R)
The Life Attitude Profile-Revised (LAP-R) is a 48-item self-report measure of discovered meaning and purpose in life and the motivation to find meaning and purpose in life. There are 6 subscales: Purpose (8 items, Minimum 8, Maximum 56, Higher is better), Coherence (8 items, Minimum 8, Maximum 56, Higher is better), Life control (8 items, Minimum 8, Maximum 56, Higher is better), Death acceptance (8 items, Minimum 8, Maximum 56, Higher is better), Existential transcendence (16 items, Minimum 16, Maximum 112, Higher is better), Personal Meaning (16 items, Minimum 16, Maximum 112, Higher is better), Goal Seeking (8 items, Minimum 8, Maximum 56, Higher is better): LAP-R total score (48 items, Minimum 72, Maximum 504, Higher is better). The LAP-R total score is derived by summing all subscales.
Time frame: baseline meaning making measures and again at post-intervention (approximately week 8)
Clinical and Demographic Variables That May Correspond to Differential Responses to Individual Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy
The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWB) comprises 12 items, each on a 0 ('Not at All') to 4 ('Very Much'). The SWB total score is derived by summing the responses, with a higher score representing high spiritual well-being. The minimum score is 0 and the maximum score is 48.
Time frame: baseline meaning making measures and again at post-intervention (approximately week 8)
The Relative Impact of Individual Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy on Different Aspects of Meaning (e.g., Purpose, Coherence, Existential Vacuum), as Well as on Different Aspects of Spiritual Well-being (Meaning Versus Faith),
Single Item Scale (SIS) from the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL): The McGill Quality Of Life Questionnaire is a 17-item scale, with each item rated on a scale of 0 to 10, divided into four domains (the Single-Item Scale (SIS), physical symptoms, feelings and thoughts, and social). It is a brief, self-report instrument designed to assess various domains of psychological, spiritual, and physical functioning among terminally ill patients. In this study the SIS from the MQOL was used. For each scale participants rate their current functioning on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being Very Bad and 10 being Excellent, higher is better.
Time frame: baseline meaning making measures and again at post-intervention (approximately week 8)
Whether an Enhanced Sense of Meaning "Explains" (Mediates) Improved Psychological Well-being (i.e., Increased Quality of Life, Decreased Psychological Distress).
The Schedule of Attitudes towards Hastened Death (SAHD) comprises 20 TRUE/FALSE questions on the presence or absence of attitudes towards hastened death. A scale score is derived by tallying the number of items endorsed. The minimum score is 0 (better, no thoughts on hastened death) and the maxim score is 20 (worst, many thoughts on hastened death).
Time frame: 4 years
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