Prostate and breast cancer can have a lot of negative consequences such as fatigue, sleep difficulties and emotional distress, which decrease quality of life. Group interventions showed benefits to emotional distress and fatigue, but most of these studies focus on breast cancer patients. However, it is important to test if an effective intervention for breast cancer patients could also have benefits for prostate cancer patients. Our controlled study aimed to compare the efficacy of a self-hypnosis/self-care group intervention to improve emotional distress, sleep difficulties, fatigue and quality of life of breast and prostate cancer patients. 25 men with prostate cancer and 68 women with breast cancer participated and were evaluated before (T0) and after (T1) the intervention. After the intervention, the breast cancer group showed positive effects for anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep difficulties, and global health status, whereas there was no effect in the prostate cancer group. We showed that women suffered from higher difficulties prior to the intervention and that their oncological treatments were different in comparison to men. The differences in the efficacy of the intervention could be explained by the baseline differences. As men in our sample reported few distress, fatigue or sleep problems, it is likely that they did not improve on these dimensions. ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT02569294 and NCT03423927 ). Retrospectively registered in October 2015 and February 2018 respectively.

Background. Many patients with severe brain damage may survive and remain in a prolonged disorder of consciousness (PDoC), impacting the quality of life (QoL) and needs of their family caregivers. However, the current literature on the factors influencing these needs is contradictory. We aim to describe the needs, QoL, and emotional distress of caregivers of patients with PDoC. Methods. Questionnaires investigating the importance and satisfaction of six categories of needs (i.e., health information, emotional, instrumental, and professional supports, community support network, and involvement in care), QoL, and emotional distress were completed by the main caregivers of PDoC patients. Results. We analyzed 177 questionnaires. Seventy-nine percent of the needs were considered as important or very important, and 44% were partially met or unmet. The needs for health information and professional support were the most important, while the needs for involvement in care and for health information were the most satisfied. Mean QoL was low and emotional distress high. Variables such as care setting and time since brain injury affected the level of QoL and distress. Conclusion. The needs for health information and professional support should receive particular attention. Given their low QoL and high distress, adequate support structures should be provided to caregivers of PDoC patients.

Purpose: Cancer patients often report low self-esteem and high emotional distress. Two factors seem particularly linked to these symptoms: emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness. The interest of hypnosis and self-care to relieve these symptoms is not well documented. Our randomized controlled trial aimed at assessing the effect of a group intervention combining self-hypnosis and self-care on self-esteem, emotional distress, emotion regulation, and mindfulness abilities of post-treatment cancer patients, as well as investigating the links between these variables. Methods: One hundred and four patients who had suffered from cancer were randomized into the intervention group (N = 52) and the wait-list control group (N = 52). They had to answer questionnaires before (T1) and after the intervention (T2). Nine men were excluded from the analyses, leading to a final sample of 95 women with cancer. Group-by-time changes were assessed with MANOVA, and associations with self-esteem and emotional distress were investigated with hierarchical linear regression models. Results: Participants in the intervention group (mean age = 51.65; SD = 12.54) reported better self-esteem, lower emotional distress, a decreased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, and more mindfulness abilities after the intervention, compared to the WLCG. This increase in mindfulness explained 33% of the improvement of self-esteem and 41.6% of the decrease of emotional distress in the intervention group. Self-esteem and emotional distress also predicted each other. Conclusion: Our study showed the efficacy of our hypnosis-based intervention to improve all the investigated variables. Mindfulness predicted the improvement of self-esteem and emotional distress. The primary impact of our intervention on mindfulness abilities seems to explain, at least in part, its efficacy. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03144154). Retrospectively registered on the 1st of May, 2017.

Cancer can provoke fatigue, sleep disturbances, and emotional distress. Hypnosis interventions have shown positive short-term effects on these symptoms. However, less is known about their long-term effects. This study assessed the short- and long-term effects of a group intervention combining self-care and self-hypnosis on these symptoms in posttreatment cancer patients. Ninety-five female cancer survivors were randomized to either a hypnosis group intervention or wait-list control. Results showed significant decreases in fatigue, sleep difficulties and emotional distress after intervention for the hypnosis group intervention in comparison to the wait-list control. Most of these positive effects were maintained at 1-year follow-up. Most participants received the hypnosis group intervention approximately 10.65 months after diagnosis, and it is possible that delivering the intervention earlier after diagnosis could have achieved a more robust impact. Further studies are needed to replicate these results in comparison to an active control condition and investigate the best time postdiagnosis for initiating the intervention.

Introduction: A symptom cluster is very common among oncological patients: cancer-related fatigue (CRF), emotional distress, sleep difficulties, pain, and cognitive difficulties. Clinical applications of interventions based on non-ordinary states of consciousness, mostly hypnosis and meditation, are starting to be investigated in oncology settings. They revealed encouraging results in terms of improvements of these symptoms. However, these studies often focused on breast cancer patients, with methodological limitations (e.g., small sample size, no control group, and no follow-up). Another non-ordinary state of consciousness may also have therapeutic applications in oncology: self-induced cognitive trance (SICT). It seems to differ from hypnosis and meditation, as it involves the body more directly. Thus, investigating its clinical applications, along with hypnosis and meditation interventions, could improve available therapeutic options in oncology. This article details the study protocol of a preference-based longitudinal controlled superiority trial aiming to assess the effectiveness of 3 group interventions (hypnosis, meditation, and SICT) to improve oncological patients’ quality of life, and more specifically CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties (primary outcomes). Methods and analysis: A power analysis required a total sample of 160 patients. Main inclusion criteria are: cancer diagnosis, active treatments completed for less than a year, no practice of hypnosis, meditation, or SICT, and presence of at least one of these four symptoms: fatigue, sleep difficulties, depression, or anxiety. Each participant will choose the intervention in which they want to participate (hypnosis, mindful self-compassion meditation, SICT, or no intervention—control group). To test the effectiveness of the interventions, data will be collected by questionnaires and neurobiological measures and directly from the medical record at four time points: before inclusion in the study (baseline); immediately after the intervention; and at 3- and 12-month follow-up. The longitudinal data in each group will then be measured. Discussion: In addition to standard cancer therapies, there is a growing interest from patients in complementary approaches, such as hypnosis, meditation, and SICT. The results of this study will be useful to increase knowledge about short- and long-term effectiveness of 3 group interventions for CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties in patients with different cancers. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov/ (NCT04873661). Retrospectively registered on the 29th of April 2021. url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04873661