Impacts of Competitive Memory Training Program on Interpretation-bias in Cancer Patients with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), serious medical diseases, such as cancer, can be considered as a traumatic event while perceived as unexpected, sudden, and life-threatening. Diagnosis of life-threatening disease like cancer, can lead to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a  competitive memory training (COMET) as an intervention on changing interpretation bias among newly diagnosed cancer patients suffering from PTSD.

By a semi-experimental design a sample size of 60 newly diagnosed cancer patients suffering from PSTD were selected and randomly divided into the COMET group (N = 30) or the MEmory Specificity Training (MEST) group (N = 30). Pre-assessment included a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL) and a series of short clips applied to measure interpretation bias in the subjects. The COMET group received 6 weekly 45 min individual sessions, while the MEST group undergone 7 weekly 45 min individual sessions. All the assessments were re-conducted in the post-treatment and three-months follow-up stages. Data were analysed using mixed ANOVA analysis.

The results indicated that COMET intervention significantly reduced the interpretation bias extent in the cancer patients with PTSD symptoms compared to the control  MEST group.

We concluded that COMET intervention can be used as an effective intervention to alleviate the interpretation bias among cancer-related post-traumatic stress disorder patients.