The Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on Reduction of Psychological Symptoms among Patients with Cancer

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on the psychological symptoms among patients with cancer.

The design of the study is quasi-experimental with pretest, post-test with a control group. 30 patients were randomly allocated into two groups: experimental group (15 patients) and control group (15 patients). The independent variable was cognitive-behavioral therapy which was administrated in 9 sessions on the experimental group while there was no psychological treatment for the control group. The research instrument was SCL-90-R. The data was analyzed using covariance analysis.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy led to reduction in psychological symptoms in all dimensions of SCL-90-R variables among patients of experimental group.

It may also be used as a supplement method enhancing standard oncological treatment and improving the physician-patient relationship.