Psychological intervention reduces postembolization pain during hepatic arterial chemoembolization therapy: A complementary approach to drug analgesia

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of patients

Characteristics	Control group	Intervention group	Significance
	(n = 46)	(n = 216)
Age (yr)	54.11 ± 10.85	51.50 ± 11.54	t = 1.41	P = 0.16
Gender
Male	37	149
Female	9	67	χ2 = 2.42	P = 0.12
Tumor type
Primary	27	135
Metastatic	19	81	χ2 = 0.23	P = 0.63

P > 0.05 for each comparison.

Table 2 Psychological symptoms of patients measured with SCL-90 before the procedure (mean ± SD)

Psychological	Control group	Intervention group	Significance
symptoms	(n = 46)	(n = 216)	t(or t’)	P value
Somatization	1.55 ± 0.46	1.58 ± 0.44	0.42	0.68
Obsessive-compulsive tendencies	1.53 ±0.67	1.68 ± 0.61	1.49	0.14
Sensitivity	1.65 ± 0.57	1.58 ± 0.55	0.78	0.44
Depression	1.72 ± 0.50	1.64 ± 0.48	1.02	0.31
Anxiety	1.47 ± 0.40	1.51 ± 0.39	0.63	0.53
Hostility	1.41 ± 0.57	1.50 ± 0.60	0.93	0.35
Phobia	1.46 ± 0.38	1.40 ± 0.33	1.09	0.28
Paranoia	1.50 ± 0.49	1.42 ± 0.48	1.02	0.31
Psychosis	1.46 ± 0.30	1.41 ± 0.37	0.98	0.33

P > 0.05 for each comparison.

Table 3 Differences in psychological symptoms measured with SCL-90 in patients of intervention group and normal Chinese (mean ± SD) (Jin H et al, 1986)

Psychological symptoms	Intervention group (n = 216)	Norm (n = 7273)	Significance
			t (or t’)	P value
Somatization	1.58 ± 0.44	1.40 ± 0.40	5.94	< 0.01
Obsessive-compulsive tendencies	1.68 ± 0.61	1.49 ± 0.54	4.53	< 0.01
Sensitivity	1.58 ± 0.55	1.45 ± 0.52	3.61	< 0.01
Depression	1.64 ± 0.48	1.42 ± 0.49	6.51	< 0.01
Anxiety	1.51 ± 0.39	1.31 ± 0.42	6.91	< 0.01
Hostility	1.50 ± 0.60	1.37 ± 0.50	3.15	< 0.01
Phobia	1.40 ± 0.33	1.25 ± 0.40	6.54	< 0.01
Paranoia	1.42 ± 0.48	1.35 ± 0.49	2.07	< 0.05
Psychosis	1.41 ± 0.37	1.22 ± 0.37	7.44	< 0.01

Table 4 Correlation between psychological symptom scores (SCL-90) and pain numeric rating scores (NRS-10) before analgesia in intervention group (n = 216)

Psychological symptoms	Numerical rating score
	Correlation coefficient (r)	P value
Somatization	0.141	< 0.05
Obsessive-compulsive tendencies	0.106	> 0.05
Sensitivity	0.097	> 0.05
Depression	0.031	> 0.05
Anxiety	0.192	< 0.01
Hostility	0.083	> 0.05
Phobia	0.157	< 0.05
Paranoia	0.124	> 0.05
Psychosis	0.08	> 0.05

Table 5 Pain score measured with numeric rating scale (NRS-10) during the procedure (mean ± SD)

	Numerical rating score	Significance1
		t’	P value
Control group (n = 46)
Pre-medication	4.35 ± 3.82
Post-medication	1.64 ± 1.53	4.47	< 0.01
Intervention group (n = 216)
Pre-psychotherapy	3.69 ± 2.46
Post-psychotherapy	2.45 ± 1.96	5.79	< 0.01
Post-medication	0.29 ± 0.21	20.24	< 0.01

¹Compared with pre-therapy NRS.

Table 6 Pain control with psychological intervention in intervention group (n = 216)

	n	%
Entire relief1	5	2.31
Partial relief2	63	29.17
Not relief	148	68.52

¹Pain numerical rating scores (PNRS ≤ 1) after psychotherapy;

²PNRS ≥ 3 before psychotherapy.

Table 7 Pain numerical rating scores (NRS-10) before and after analgesia: Comparison between control group and intervention group (mean ± SD)

	Control group	Intervention group	Significance
	(n = 46)	(n = 216)	t’	P value
Pre-therapy	4.35 ± 3.82	3.69 ± 2.46	1.12	> 0.05
Post-therapy	1.64 ± 1.53	0.29 ± 0.21	7.3	< 0.01