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Cancer-related fatigue and anxiety respond to structured talking therapy that targets the thoughts and habits that keep them going. Randomised trials show benefits during treatment and, for persistent fatigue, years afterwards; guidelines recommend it.
Cognitive behavioural therapy adapted to cancer addresses unhelpful beliefs about fatigue, irregular sleep and activity patterns, fear of recurrence and low mood. A randomised trial of 112 severely fatigued disease-free survivors (Gielissen et al., JCO 2006) found that a course of CBT produced clinically significant improvement in fatigue in more than half of patients compared with a quarter on the waiting list, with gains maintained at two years. The 2024 SIO-ASCO fatigue guideline recommends CBT for fatigue during and after treatment and the 2023 SIO-ASCO anxiety and depression guideline recommends it for anxiety and depressive symptoms. Delivery by trained psychologists, nurses or online programmes all have trial support. CBT sits within psycho-oncology alongside distress screening and, where needed, medication.
Behavioural activation, graded activity and cognitive restructuring interrupt the cycle in which rest, worry and deconditioning perpetuate fatigue and low mood.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"Cognitive behavioural therapy for fatigue and distress" OR ABSTRACT:"Cognitive behavioural therapy for fatigue and distress") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Cognitive behavioural therapy for fatigue and distress, not a curated reading list.
Shares Integrative Oncology Care of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adults With Cancer: Society for Integrative Oncology-ASCO Guideline, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Relapsed and refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma, Early-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma (stage I to II) and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Integrative Oncology Care of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adults With Cancer: Society for Integrative Oncology-ASCO Guideline, Depression during and after cancer: the interview-based prevalence, and the care model that works, Treating fear of recurrence: the randomised trials, their effect sizes, and where the treatment is available, Anxiety after cancer, in survivors and in their partners and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Integrative Oncology Care of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adults With Cancer: Society for Integrative Oncology-ASCO Guideline, Treating fear of recurrence: the randomised trials, their effect sizes, and where the treatment is available, Anxiety after cancer, in survivors and in their partners, Evidence-based integrative oncology and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Integrative Oncology Care of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adults With Cancer: Society for Integrative Oncology-ASCO Guideline, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Psycho-oncology and distress screening and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Integrative Oncology Care of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adults With Cancer: Society for Integrative Oncology-ASCO Guideline, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Psycho-oncology and distress screening, Quality of life and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Fatigue after cancer treatment: what actually works, Getting psychological help after cancer: the stepped-care model, and what is actually commissioned, Thinking and memory after cancer treatment: what is measurable, and what helps, Psycho-oncology and distress screening and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Menopause symptoms after chemotherapy for breast cancer, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Psycho-oncology and distress screening, Toxicity and quality of life are undervalued and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Fatigue after cancer treatment: what actually works, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Exercise & lifestyle oncology, Quality of life and the tags complementary, supportive-care.