ORIGINAL ARTICLE Year : 2013 | Volume : 34 | Issue : 1 | Page : 25--33 Psychoeducational program for breast cancer survivors, effect on cancer-related fatigue and quality of life Mohamad Ezzat Amin Arafa1, Mohamad Hassan2 1 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt 2 Department of Clinical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt Correspondence Address: To assess the efficacy of the psychoeducational program in alleviating cancer-related fatigue and mood symptoms, and improving quality of life of breast cancer survivors. MethodsA prospective follow-up case–control study was carried out between June and December 2010. Eighty patients were randomly selected from among women who had recently completed their treatments for breast cancer at the outpatient clinic in the Department of Clinical Oncology, Cairo University (Egypt). They were divided into group A, which received the program, and group B, the waiting control group. Karnofsky Performance Scale was used to exclude physical disability. Assessment was carried out twice, at weeks 0 and 4, using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Health-Related Quality of Life-Short Form (HRQL-SF) 36, and Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF). The psychiatric diagnosis was made according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, 4th ed., Text Revised criteria. ResultsThere was a nonsignificant difference between both groups in terms of sociodemographic or medical data, and the mean scores of HADS, HRQL-SF 36, and MFSI-SF at week 0. There was a significant difference between both the groups in terms of the mean scores of HADS, HRQL-SF 36, and MFSI-SF at week 4. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of HADS, HRQL-SF 36, and MFSI-SF in group A before and after the intervention. ConclusionFatigue is a major problem in the majority of breast cancer patients after therapy. A psychoeducational program improves various aspects of patients’ physical, emotional, and quality of life.
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