Psychosocial Care Integral for Breast Cancer Patients, Report Concludes

Extract

Of the more than 250,000 women in the United States who will learn they have breast cancer this year, about 30% of them will need specialized emotional, social, psychological, or pastoral care, according to a draft report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which was released at the first meeting of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society in Orlando in late January.

In the report, Meeting Psychosocial Needs of Women with Breast Cancer, IOM advisers concluded that, to the extent that psychosocial services have been investigated, the interventions do reduce psychiatric symptoms in cancer patients and improve their quality of life. The report makes a series of recommendations for cancer providers and researchers, including that providers should adhere to the current National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines on distress, and that the National Cancer Institute should conduct a study to determine the use and need for such services as well as to identify barriers to access. Additionally, the report authors provide specific suggestions for how researchers working in the area of psychosocial interventions should improve their study designs.