Review2006

Efficacy of psychosocial interventions in cancer care: Evidence is weaker than it first looks

James C. Coyne · Stephen J. Lepore · Steven C. Palmer

121 citations0/0 files storedAnnals of Behavioral Medicine

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Meta-analysis and systematic reviews Cancer survivorship and care Health Policy Implementation Science

Abstract

With increasing sophistication, successive reviews find weaker evidence for the efficacy of psychosocial interventions to reduce distress among cancer patients. However, these appraisals may still be overly positive because of reviewers' uncritical acceptance of flaws in the design, analysis, and reporting of the results of such trials. Using randomized trials from high-impact journals, we show confirmatory bias, selective reporting of the most favorable of multiple outcome measures, suppressing of null results in subsequent citations of trials, and dropping of data for patients least likely to benefit from intervention. The conclusion that typical cancer patients do not benefit from interventions to reduce distress is strengthened when these endemic problems with the literature are taken into account. Required registering of the details of clinical trials and adherence to CONSORT reduces but does not eliminate bias in the literature.

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References

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Cited by

2011The effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on psychosocial outcomes and quality of life in early-stage breast cancer patients: a randomized trial 2015Effectiveness of Mindfulness-based Therapy for Reducing Anxiety and Depression in Patients With Cancer 2010Relevance of CONSORT reporting criteria for research on eHealth interventions 2013A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Women With Early-Stage Breast Cancer Receiving Radiotherapy 2010Ain’t necessarily so: Review and critique of recent meta-analyses of behavioral medicine interventions in health psychology.

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