Beck Institute Blog

A new study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that group Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) can reduce unwanted thoughts, anxiety and stress among women who have recently had breast cancer surgery. For this study, 199 women who had recently had breast cancer surgery were randomly assigned to one of two groups — they received either 10 weeks of group CBT, or a one-day seminar following surgery. The University of Miami, Florida team that conducted the study observed the women for one year, and found that those who had received group CBT had significantly less anxiety, intrusive cancer-related thoughts, emotional distress, and overall life stress than those in the control group. These improvements were maintained during the year post-treatment.

 A new study just published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows that Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) can help cancer survivors who are experiencing severe fatigue and functional impairment. If you know someone who has been cured of his or her cancer, but has unexplained fatigue, you may want to check out this study.

112 cancer survivors with severe fatigue were randomly assigned to one of two groups — half of them received CBT, and the other half was assigned to a waitlist for therapy (i.e. they did not receive therapy during the six month timeframe of the study). The group that received CBT treatment showed significantly reduced fatigue and functional impairment as compared to the control group.