Juan Li, Chan Li, Martine Puts, Yu-chen Wu, et. al. Effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on anxiety, depression, and fatigue in people with lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Nursing Studies, Volume 140,2023,104447,ISSN 0020-7489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2023.104447. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020748923000123
The aim of the study, a systematic review and meta-analysis, investigated the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on anxiety, depression, and fatigue in individuals with lung cancer. While previous research mostly targeted different cancer types, this study focuses on the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions for individuals specifically dealing with lung cancer. Included were studies up to April 2022. The systematic review included 25 studies (2420 participants), and the meta-analysis included 18 studies (1731 participants).
The findings of the individual studies showed that mindfulness-based interventions significantly decreased levels of anxiety, depression, and fatigue in individuals with lung cancer, indicating their potential in addressing psychological symptoms in this population. There were significant differences between the studies included which limited the generalization of findings.
Subgroup analysis compared studies which included patients with advanced stage lung cancer to studies with patients with mixed stages, and compared studies which conformed to the “standard” highly structured programs such as the eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program to studies which were less structured and lasted longer than eight weeks. The study includes useful detailed descriptions of the differences in structure, content, and length of the twenty-five studies in the systematic review, and may be useful for clinicians or researchers who are considering whether to implement a protocol which adheres strictly to the “standard programs” or implement variations. The authors report finding that results were more effective with the advanced stage lung cancer patients who received the standard mindfulness treatment compared to mixed stage patients who received longer treatment. I suspect that the between group differences were less due to the cancer stage or specific length of the treatment than to a difference between the “standard” treatment structure and content compared to the non-standard treatment structure and content, reflecting a presumed greater efficacy of the more structured MBSR type interventions.
The study reports that the overall quality of evidence was deemed low due to methodology in the studies and emphasized the need for more rigorous studies to confirm these findings and identify the most effective intervention components for improved outcomes.
