The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Efficacy of meaning-centered group psychotherapy for cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of meaning-centered group psychotherapy for cancer survivors (MCGP-CS) to improve personal meaning, compared with supportive group psychotherapy (SGP) and care as usual (CAU). METHOD: A total of 170 cancer survivors were randomly assigned to one of the three study arms: MCGP-CS (n = 57); SGP (n = 56); CAU (n = 57). The primary outcome measure was the Personal Meaning Profile (PMP; total score). Secondary outcome measures were subscales of the PMP, psychological well-being (Scales of Psychological Well-being; SPWB), post-traumatic growth (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory), Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC), optimism (Life Orientation Test-Revised), hopelessness (Beck's Hopelessness Scale), psychological distress (anxiety and depression, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; HADS) and quality of life (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire; EORTC QLQ-C30). Outcome measures were assessed before randomization, post-intervention, and after 3 and 6 months of follow-up (FU). RESULTS: Linear mixed model analyses (intention-to-treat) showed significant differences between MCGP-CS, SGP and CAU on the total PMP score, and on (sub)scales of the PMP, SPWB, MAC and HADS. Post-hoc analyses showed significantly stronger treatment effects of MCGP-CS compared with CAU on personal meaning (d = 0.81), goal-orientedness (d = 1.07), positive relations (d = 0.59), purpose in life (d = 0.69); fighting spirit (d = 0.61) (post-intervention) and helpless/hopeless (d = -0.87) (3 months FU); and distress (d = -0.6) and depression (d = -0.38) (6 months FU). Significantly stronger effects of MCGP-CS compared with SGP were found on personal growth (d = 0.57) (3 months FU) and environmental mastery (d = 0.66) (6 months FU). CONCLUSIONS: MCGP-CS is an effective intervention for cancer survivors to improve personal meaning, psychological well-being and mental adjustment to cancer in the short term, and to reduce psychological distress in the long run.
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“MCP was more effective in improving goal-orientedness and a fighting spirit compared to the Supportive Group, as well as personal growth and environmental mastery at the 6-month follow-up.”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [9]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“Finally, we have considered possible sample loss during the treatment program, and based on studies of interventions with MCP, we expect a 30% dropout rate (9). Therefore, taking this outcome into account, our study requires a total sample size of 118 participants (59 participants per experimental condition).”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [9]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“The results at the 6-month follow-up showed that the MCP treatment improved personal meaning, positive relations, purpose in life, a fighting spirit, hopelessness, goal-orientedness, and psychological wellbeing and adjustment, and it reduced psychological distress and depressive symptoms more than the TAU condition.”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [9]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Treatment efficacy studies have found a dropout rate of 30% (9), which can interfere with the development of the study as well as the type of statistical analysis that we can perform.”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [9]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
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“Therefore, previous studies suggest that intervening in meaning in life in cancer patients can be an effective treatment to improve the aforementioned negative emotional states and lead to better coping with life after a cancer diagnosis (8, 9).”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [9]
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Citations
Cites
Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
Cohen, J. (1990) · Computers Environment and Urban Systems · doi:10.1016/0198-9715(90)90050-4 · Cited by 65,417
Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2016
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Park, C. L. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0018301 · Cited by 3,174 · cited 1×
“An explanation may be that experiencing personal meaning or purpose after a search for meaning precedes a decrease in psychological distress, in accordance with Park’s Meaning Making Model (Park, 2010).”
ResultOffenkrantz, W. C. (1981) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.138.7.1002 · Cited by 2,926
SPINHOVEN, P., ORMEL, J., SLOEKERS, P. P. A., KEMPEN, G. I. J. M., SPECKENS, A. E. M., & HEMERT, A. M. V. (1997) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291796004382 · Cited by 2,158
Why We (Usually) Don't Have to Worry About Multiple Comparisons
Gelman, A., Hill, J., & Yajima, M. (2012) · Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness · doi:10.1080/19345747.2011.618213 · Cited by 1,274
Quality of life research within the EORTC—the EORTC QLQ-C30
Fayers, P. M., & Bottomley, A. (2002) · European Journal of Cancer · doi:10.1016/s0959-8049(01)00448-8 · Cited by 928
On the relation between meaning in life and psychological well‐being
Zika, S., & Chamberlain, K. (1992) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1992.tb02429.x · Cited by 925
Effect of spiritual well-being on end-of-life despair in terminally-ill cancer patients
McClain, C. S., Rosenfeld, B., & Breitbart, W. (2003) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(03)13310-7 · Cited by 812
Chochinov, H. M., Kristjanson, L. J., Breitbart, W., McClement, S., Hack, T. F., Hassard, T., & Harlos, M. (2011) · The Lancet Oncology · doi:10.1016/s1470-2045(11)70153-x · Cited by 775
Self-citation
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Frankl, 1986, The Doctor and the Soul
- Jaarsma, 2003, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Dutch Version
- Breitbart, 2014, Meaning-Centered Group Psychotherapy for Patients with Advanced Cancer: A Treatment Manual
- Spiegel, 1991, Supportive-Expressive Group Therapy: A Treatment Manual of Psychosocial Intervention for Women with Recurrent Breast Cancer
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
A systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions to improve mental wellbeing
van Agteren, J., Iasiello, M., Lo, L., Bartholomaeus, J., Kopsaftis, Z., Carey, M., & Kyrios, M. (2021) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01093-w · Cited by 510
Advancing psychosocial care in cancer patients
Grassi, L. G., Spiegel, D., & Riba, M. (2017) · F1000Research · doi:10.12688/f1000research.11902.1 · Cited by 220
Fear of cancer recurrence and death anxiety
Sharpe, L., Curran, L., Butow, P., & Thewes, B. (2018) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.4783 · Cited by 149
Bauereiß, N., Obermaier, S., Özünal, S. E., & Baumeister, H. (2018) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.4829 · Cited by 149
Park, C. L., Pustejovsky, J. E., Trevino, K., Sherman, A. C., Esposito, C., Berendsen, M., & Salsman, J. M. (2019) · Cancer · doi:10.1002/cncr.32078 · Cited by 125
“Combination therapies that use mind-body techniques along with a specific focus on meaning might usefully create synergies across these modalities.(24,90,91)”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- van der Spek, N., Vos, J., van Uden-Kraan, C. F., Breitbart, W., Cuijpers, P., Holtmaat, K., Witte, B. I., Tollenaar, R. A. E. M., & Verdonck-de Leeuw, I. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Roehampton (GB)
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2017-04-04
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1990-2001
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC5501751
- OpenAlex
- W2604525151
- Cited by
- 135
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 4.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.vu.nl
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R41TR003571)
- National Cancer Institute (P30CA008748)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life
- Keywords
- cancer survivors, personal meaning, psychological well-being, mental adjustment to cancer, psychological distress, posttraumatic growth, hopelessness, quality of life
- MeSH terms
- Optimism, Cancer Survivors, Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Psychotherapy, Group, Quality of Life, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Hope
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