Effect of supportive-expressive group therapy on alexithymia in lung cancer patients receiving chemotherapy / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the effect of supportive-expressive group therapy (SEGT) on alexithymia in patients with lung cancer.Methods:Totally 62 lung cancer patients were divided into control group( n=30) and intervention group( n=32) by coin flipping method.The intervention group received 6-week supportive-expressive group therapy and the intervention path was improved by action research method.There was no special intervention in the control group.The Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS-20) and hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) were used for measurement, and statistical analysis was carried out by SPSS 21.0. Results:The emotional recognition disorder (Wald groupχ 2=6.055, Wald interactionχ 2=15.157), emotional description disorder (Wald groupχ 2=5.736, Wald interactionχ 2=28.912), TAS-20 (Wald groupχ 2=7.181, Wald interactionχ 2=28.126), anxiety (Wald groupχ 2=4.905, Wald interactionχ 2=30.491), depression (Wald groupχ 2=9.580, Wald interactionχ 2=29.417) and HADA (Wald groupχ 2=8.140, Wald interactionχ 2=47.851) had significant group effect and interaction effect at the pre-test, post-test and 1 month after intervention(all P<0.05). There was no significant group effect in extroverted thinking (Wald groupχ 2=1.161, P>0.05), but the time effect (Wald timeχ 2=6.381, P<0.05) and the interaction effect (Wald interactionχ 2=6.339, P<0.05) were significant in the three time points.The group effect of emotional recognition disorder, emotional description disorder, TAS-20, anxiety, depression and HADA score at completed intervention and 1 month after intervention were significant(all P<0.05). Compared with before intervention, TAS-20((52.94±4.77) , (52.06±4.07)), emotional recognition disorder((17.72±2.23) , (17.78±1.64)), emotional description disorder((13.44±1.94) , (13.41±1.79)), HADA((14.41±2.63) , (13.75±2.97)), anxiety ((7.03±1.64), (6.84±1.51)), depression ((7.38±1.45) , (6.91±1.75) ) at completed intervention and 1 month after intervention decreased ( P<0.05), while the HADS of control group only decreased at completed intervention ( P<0.05). Conclusion:SEGT can reduce alexithymia in lung cancer receiving chemotherapy, and this intervention has positive effect on improving anxiety and depression in lung cancer patients received chemotherapy who are accompanied with emotional cognitive impairment and emotional somatic symptom recognition disorder.