Partner-Assisted Emotional Disclosure for GI Cancer

伴侣协助治疗胃肠道癌症的情绪表露

• 批准号: 6733234
• 负责人: LAURA S PORTER
• 金额: $ 25.26万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-03-02 至 2007-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6733234
• 关键词: audiotape; behavioral /social science research tag; caregivers; clinical research; dyadic interaction; emotions; family structure /dynamics; gastrointestinal neoplasms; gender difference; health behavior; human subject; neoplasm /cancer classification /staging; neoplasm /cancer education; neoplasm /cancer therapy; psychological adaptation; psychological aspect of cancer; psychological stressor; quality of life; self care; sex partner; social support network; spouses; terminal patient care; therapy compliance

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cancer patients often face difficulties disclosing their cancer-related feelings and concerns to their spouses or intimate partners. This may ultimately compromise patients' adjustment as well as the quality of their relationship with their partner. Emotional disclosure (ED) is a central component of the emotional support that partners provide to each other. In addition, having individuals engage in private ED about stressful experiences in a laboratory setting has been found to produce psychological and physical benefits. However, the potential benefits of facilitating ED between cancer patients and their partners have not been addressed. The proposed study seeks to evaluate the efficacy of a new partner-assisted emotional disclosure protocol. 200 patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer and their partners will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: 1) Partner-assisted emotional disclosure which systematically trains patients and partners in strategies to facilitate the patients' disclosure and gives the patient the opportunity to talk about their cancer-related concerns to the partner, or 2) Cancer education which provides patients and partners with information about cancer and its treatment. Assessment measures to be collected before and after treatment and at 8-weeks follow-up will include patients' reports of psychological adjustment, physical and functional well being, quality of communication with the partner, level of intimacy and quality of relationship with the partner; partners' ratings of psychological adjustment, caregiver strain, quality of communication, and level of intimacy and quality of relationship with the patient; and physician ratings of the patient's illness severity and documentation of medical treatments and frequency of medical visits. If partner-assisted ED is effective, future studies could evaluate this protocol in other cancer populations (e.g., breast cancer, prostate cancer). Future studies could also compare partner-assisted ED to a private ED protocol and identify individuals who are most likely to benefit from each approach. This study may lead to major advances in our understanding of the role of emotional disclosure and emotional support in the adjustment of cancer patients. If successful, it may enlarge our repertoire of methods for effectively increasing social support and enhancing the well being of both cancer patients and their partners.

描述（由申请人提供）：癌症患者通常难以向配偶或亲密伴侣表达他们与癌症相关的感受和担忧。这可能最终损害患者的适应以及他们与伴侣关系的质量。情感表露（ED）是伴侣相互提供情感支持的核心组成部分。此外，让个体在实验室环境中参与关于压力经历的私人ED已经被发现产生心理和身体上的好处。然而，促进癌症患者及其伴侣之间ED的潜在益处尚未得到解决。这项拟议的研究旨在评估一种新的伴侣辅助情感披露协议的功效。200名晚期胃肠癌患者和他们的伴侣将被随机分配到两种情况中的一种：1)伴侣协助的情感表露，系统地培训患者和伴侣的策略，以促进患者的情感表露，并使患者有机会向伴侣谈论他们与癌症相关的担忧；2)癌症教育，为患者和伴侣提供癌症及其治疗的信息。治疗前后和8周随访时收集的评估措施将包括患者的心理调整、身体和功能健康、与伴侣的沟通质量、亲密程度和与伴侣关系质量的报告；伴侣对心理适应、照顾者压力、沟通质量、与患者的亲密程度和关系质量的评分；以及医生对病人病情严重程度的评分以及医疗记录和就诊频率。如果伴侣辅助ED有效，未来的研究可以在其他癌症人群（如乳腺癌、前列腺癌）中评估该方案。未来的研究还可以比较伴侣辅助ED和私人ED方案，并确定最有可能从每种方法中受益的个体。本研究将有助于我们进一步了解情绪表露和情绪支持在癌症患者适应过程中的作用。如果成功，它可能会扩大我们有效增加社会支持和提高癌症患者及其伴侣福祉的方法。