Behaviors and Mental Disorders

All Conditions

Stress, Psychological

Behavioral Symptoms

Patients in the intervention group will receive a 30-minute MBST session by a palliative care physician trained in mindfulness practice. The MBST consists of a session that involves interviewing patients with open-ended questions on suffering experiences. During the session, the practitioner will practice mindful breathing simultaneously while listening to patients. The practitioner will acknowledge the distress of patients when it is appropriate, but without losing their attention on mindful breathing. Outcomes will be measured at baseline and at minute 30.

Patients in the control group will receive a 30-minute supportive listening session by a palliative care physician who has no experience in mindfulness practice. The session involves interviewing patients with the same open-ended questions on suffering experiences. The practitioner will acknowledge the distress of patients when it is appropriate. Outcomes will be measured at baseline and at minute 30.

The MBST consists of a session that involves interviewing patients with open-ended questions on suffering experiences. During the session, the practitioner will practice mindful breathing simultaneously while listening to patients. The practitioner will acknowledge the distress of patients when it is appropriate, but without losing their attention on mindful breathing.

30-minute Mindfulness-Based Supportive Therapy

30-minute supportive listening

Chee-Shee Chai, MD

The was a parallel group, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of 30-minute mindfulness-based supportive therapy versus supportive listening in reducing suffering among patients with cancer. This study was conducted in the University Malaya Medical Centre, from 1st august 2020 to 31 December 2020.

This study was conducted in the University Malaya Medical Centre. The study design was a parallel-group, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial. The trial will be registered at the Clinical Trials registry and was conducted in accordance to the Declaration of Helsinki. The investigators recruited patients by screening patients under the care of the palliative care team at University Malaya Medical Centre. Patients fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be approached and included in the study if give informed consent to participate.

Inclusion criteria:

* Stage III and IV cancer patients aged 18 years and above
* The overall suffering score of 4/10 and above based on The Suffering Pictogram

Exclusion criteria:

* Patients who are confused based on The Confusion Assessment scoring
* Patients who are non-communicative verbally
* Patients with psychiatric illness

Patients who were eligible were informed about the nature of the study. The study was voluntary and patients could withdraw from the study at any time. Patients who were interested to participate was randomly allocated to either the intervention group (MBST) or the control group (supportive listening) based on computer generated random numbers. Allocation concealment will be performed using sealed envelopes.

Patients in the intervention group received a 30-minute MBST session by a palliative care physician trained in mindfulness practice. The MBST consisted of a session that involvesd interviewing patients with open-ended questions on suffering experiences. During the session, the practitioner practiced mindful breathing simultaneously while listening to patients. The practitioner acknowledged the distress of patients when it was appropriate, but without losing their attention on mindful breathing.

Patients in the control group received a 30-minute supportive listening session by a palliative care physician who has no experience in mindfulness practice. The session involves interviewing patients with the same open-ended questions on suffering experiences. The practitioner acknowledged the distress of patients when it was appropriate. Outcomes will be measured at baseline and at minute 30.

Primary outcomes (patients): Suffering was measured using the Suffering Pictogram. It is a brief and validated instrument used to measure the experience of suffering in palliative care. Patients were required to rate overall suffering at the centre of the pictogram with a numerical scale of 0 to 10 (0 = no suffering, 10 = worst possible suffering). The pictogram contains eight items rated on a Likert scale - discomfort, worry, fear, anger, sadness, hopelessness, difficulty in acceptance and emptiness. The total suffering score of the eight items ranged from 0 to 32, with higher score reflecting more suffering.

Psychological distress was examined using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The HADS consisted of 14 items rated on a Likert scale yielding a score of total score (0-42), an anxiety score (0-21) and a depression score (0-21), with higher score reflecting higher distress.

Quality of life (QOL) was assessed by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT-Sp). It contained 39 items (range from 0 to 4, with higher scores reflecting higher QOL) forming an overall total score and five subscales scores: physical, social, emotional, functional and spiritual.

Patient's perception of practitioner empathic engagement was measured with the Jefferson Scale of Patient's Perceptions of Physician Empathy. It was a 5-item instrument (range from 1 to 5, with higher scores reflecting a greater degree of physician's empathy).

Secondary outcomes (practitioners): Secondary outcomes were measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Frieburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI).

Parallel group, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial

The Immediate Effect of Mindfulness-Based Supportive Therapy on Palliating Suffering in Palliative Care Cancer Patients

The Immediate Effect of Mindfulness-Based Supportive Therapy (MBST) vs Supportive Listening on Palliating Suffering in Palliative Care Cancer Patients: A Randomised Controlled Trial

The data can be requested from the primary investigators. The data cannot upload to the public repository due to restrictions from the ethics committee.

Suffering pictogram is in numerical scale of 0 to 10 (0 = no suffering, 10 = worst possible suffering). The pictogram contains eight items rated on a Likert scale - discomfort, worry, fear, anger, sadness, hopelessness, difficulty in acceptance and emptiness. The total suffering score of the eight items ranges from 0 to 32, with higher score reflecting more suffering.

Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale consists of 14 items rated on a Likert scale yielding a score of total score (0-42), an anxiety score (0-21) and a depression score (0-21), with higher score reflecting higher distress.

Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy, contains 39 items (range from 0 to 4, with higher scores reflecting higher quality of life) forming an overall total score and five subscales scores: physical, social, emotional, functional and spiritual.

Jefferson Scale of Patient's Perceptions of Physician Empathy is a 5-item instrument (range from 1 to 5, with higher scores reflecting a greater degree of physician's empathy).

Perceived Stress Scale has 10 items, each range 0 - never to 4 - very often. The total score is 40, with higher score indicates more perceive stress.

Frieburg Mindfulness Inventory has 14 items, from 1 (rarely) to 4 (always). The higher the total score, the higher the mindfulness.

University of Malaya

University Malaysia Sarawak

Individual 30-60 minutes art therapy sessions, twice a week, offering visual arts materials.

Patient's creativity is stimulated by visual arts materials and various art therapy techniques including punctual use of music, poetry and body expression. The intervention, based on the investigators previous experience, is founded on:

* humanistic phenomenological focus
* transpersonal therapeutic bound
* transdisciplinarity in the artistic approach
* integrative-relational specialized counseling of the grief, loss and trauma aspects.

art therapy

Antonio Pascual, MD

This study evaluates from the patient's perspective which elements of the own artistic creative process are the source of a beneficial change for him/her and how those elements influence in their end of life experience.

In previous quantitative studies about the effect of an art therapy intervention in adult cancer inpatients of the Palliative Care Unit, the investigators evidenced significant improvements in the symptom control of malaise, anxiety, depression and pain.

This study is designed to deepen the understanding of specific action mechanisms which lead to those therapeutic benefits and quality of life implications for patients with life-threatening illness in which a situation of suffering is frequently detected.

The investigators will determine from the subjective patient's experience which specific elements of the artistic creative process (including production of art and art products) may lead to changes in the symptom perception, in meaning and healing process and in the personal perspective about the end of life situation.

Art Therapy in Palliative Care: Study of Identification and Understanding of the Mechanisms of Change in the Patient

An art based interview is administered and involves the patients selecting 2 significant artworks from their art therapy productions. The patient is asked by the art therapist for a narrative of how one artwork relates to the other in the context of his/her lived experience. The art therapy dialogue from the RI is transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis.

Detailed notes and photographical register.

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization
The Immediate Effect of Mindfulness-Based Supportive Therapy on Palliating Suffering in Palliative Care Cancer Patients	NCT05010239	Cancer Suffering	30-minute Mindf... 30-minute suppo...	18 Years -	University Malaysia Sarawak
Art Therapy in Palliative Care: Study of Identification and Understanding of the Mechanisms of Change in the Patient	NCT02801045	Psychological S... Suffering Advanced Cancer...	art therapy	18 Years -	Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
Art Therapy in Palliative Care: Study of Identification and Understanding of the Mechanisms of Change in the Patient	NCT02801045	Psychological S... Suffering Advanced Cancer...	art therapy	18 Years -	Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for suffering

Every month we try and update this database with for suffering cancer trials from around the world to help patients and their families find trials that might be right for them.
We offer this 100% free of charge and do not endorse any of the trials listed here, we hope it helps you or a loved one.

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for suffering

Every month we try and update this database with for suffering cancer trials from around the world to help patients and their families find trials that might be right for them. We offer this 100% free of charge and do not endorse any of the trials listed here, we hope it helps you or a loved one.

Every month we try and update this database with for suffering cancer trials from around the world to help patients and their families find trials that might be right for them.
We offer this 100% free of charge and do not endorse any of the trials listed here, we hope it helps you or a loved one.