Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 6, 2021; 9(31): 9386-9394
Published online Nov 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i31.9386
Cognitive behavioral therapy on personality characteristics of cancer patients
Xiao-Hui Yuan, Juan Peng, Shu-Wei Hu, Yong Yang, Yu-Ju Bai
Xiao-Hui Yuan, Shu-Wei Hu, Yong Yang, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China
Juan Peng, Teaching and Research Office of Medical Psychology, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563003, Guizhou Province, China
Yu-Ju Bai, Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China
Author contributions: Yuan XH designed the study and performed the research, Bai YJ and Hu SW analyzed the data; Yuan XH wrote the paper and revised the manuscript for final submission; Yang Y and Peng J participated in the case collection and experiments.
Supported by Science and Technology Foundation of the Guizhou Health Department, No. GZWKJ2011-1-026; and National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81760548.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Zunyi Medical University.
Informed consent statement: All the study participants or their legal guardians provided written informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declare that we have no financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work and that there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in or the review of the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement – checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement – checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Juan Peng, Medical Master, Professor, Teaching and Research Office of Medical Psychology, Zunyi Medical University, No.6 Xuefu West Road, Xinpu Campus, Zunyi 563003, Guizhou Province, China. 551961766@qq.com
Received: July 6, 2021
Peer-review started: July 6, 2021
First decision: July 26, 2021
Revised: August 6, 2021
Accepted: September 22, 2021
Article in press: September 22, 2021
Published online: November 6, 2021
Processing time: 115 Days and 2.8 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Cancer is a disease that poses a significant threat to human health. With the improvement of science and technology, the medical model has gradually changed from the traditional biomedical model to the "physiological-psychological-social model". Regarding the cause of cancer, physical and chemical stimuli, viruses, chronic infections, drugs, genetics and other factors have been emphasized in the past. An increasing number of people have realized that psychological factors have an important influence on the occurrence, development and outcome of malignant tumors and paid increasing attention to the relationship between social psychology and cancer.

Research motivation

Psychological interventions for cancer patients are receiving increasing attention, helping patients establish treatment confidence, change their negative perceptions, reduce their anxiety and depression, correct unhealthy lifestyles, improve their social adaptation and coping skills, and improve their quality of life. However, psychological intervention measures are relatively limited and not targeted, and most of them stay at the level of psychological support. Psychotherapy needs to be further developed in a broad and in-depth manner for cancer patients.

Research objectives

To investigate the mental health of cancer patients and analyze the factors related to their mental disorders, the second goal was to explore the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on depression and anxiety in cancer patients and determine whether it results in improvements in their personality characteristics.

Research methods

According to the matching design requirements, 150 cancer patients were divided into 3 groups according to their sex, age, condition, and cultural background. Patients in the control group received conventional treatment. Patients in experimental group 1 received an intervention based on conventional treatment combined with CBT. Patients in experimental group 2 received the same treatment as experimental group 1 with family members' participation. An Eysenck personality questionnaire was used to examine all the patients before and after the intervention, and the scores for psychosis, introversion, neuroticism, and concealment degree of cancer patients were analyzed.

Research results

Compared with the control group, experimental group 1 and experimental group 2 had decreases in the four dimensions of mental quality, neuroticism, introversion and concealment degree after the intervention, and the difference was statistically significant. After the intervention, there were no differences among the groups for the personality traits psychoticism and neuroticism, both inside and outside, for all four dimensions.

Research conclusions

Simple CBT could not change the personality characteristics of cancer patients quickly, but the personality characteristics of patients in the three groups were significantly improved after treatment.

Research perspectives

CBT can prolong the life span of cancer patients; reduce their anxiety, depression and other negative emotions; and improve their psychological and physical health. In addition, the application of CBT can help cancer patients undergo psychological reconstruction; reduce their rigid thinking, distorted cognition and irrational behaviors; and to a certain extent also improve their quality of life.