Shifting psychosocial oncology care to telepsychology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) rapidly shifted psychosocial services to telepsychology, including psychosocial oncology (PSO) practices. PSO providers work with patients undergoing treatment, experiencing treatment delays and/or immuno-suppression in the context of a global pandemic. There is evidence to support the acceptability of telepsychology among cancer patients and an emerging need for data to inform the design and provision of telepsychology PSO care during the pandemic and beyond.

Relationship communication and the course of psychological outcomes among couples coping with localised prostate cancer.

Objective: How couples communicate about cancer is an important predictor of psychological outcomes for men diagnosed with localised prostate cancer and their spouses. We examined the predictive role of disclosure, responsiveness, mutual avoidance, and holding back on depressive symptoms, psychological adjustment, cancer-specific distress, and cancer concerns.

Methods: Eighty-one prostate cancer patients and their spouses completed measures of communication at baseline and measures of four psychological outcomes at baseline, five, 12, and 26 weeks after baseline.

Longitudinal course and predictors of communication and affect management self-efficacy among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancers.

Objective: Self-efficacy is an important psychological resource to assist people in managing chronic illness and has been associated with psychological outcomes among patients coping with cancer. Little is known about the course of self-efficacy among gynecological cancer patients coping with cancer and the sociodemographic, medical, and psychological factors that are associated with the course of self-efficacy among these patients.

Methods: One hundred twenty-five women recently diagnosed with gynecological cancer completed a measure of communication and affective management self-efficacy at baseline, 5 weeks, 9 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, and 18 months post-baseline.

Couple-focused interventions for men with localized prostate cancer and their spouses: A randomized clinical trial.

Objectives: Few couple-focused interventions have improved psychological and relationship functioning among men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer and their spouses. This study compared the impact of intimacy-enhancing therapy (IET), a general health and wellness intervention (GHW), and usual care (UC) on the psychological and relationship functioning of localized prostate cancer patients and their partners. Relationship length, relationship satisfaction, and patient masculinity were evaluated as moderators.

Motivational interviewing and oral health education: Experiences from a sample of elderly individuals in North and Northeast Philadelphia.

Background: Health education has a focus on knowledge dissemination and advice giving, which seldom translates into behavioral changes. Motivational interviewing (MI) has potential for helping elderly patients. However, most oral health studies conducted to date have excluded older individuals, and the outcomes examined have been exclusively clinical.

The course and predictors of perceived unsupportive responses by family and friends among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancers.

Perceived unsupportive responses from close others play an important role in psychological adaptation of patients with cancer. Little is known about whether these negative responses change after someone experiences a serious life event, and even less is known about the individual characteristics and related factors that might contribute to both the levels of and changes in perceived unsupportive responses over the course of adaptation to an experience. This longitudinal study aimed to evaluate changes in perceived unsupportive behavior from family and friends among women newly with gynecologic cancer as well as initial demographic, disease, and psychological factors that predict the course of perceived unsupportive behavior over time.

Designing and Evaluating an Interprofessional Practice Experience Involving Dental and Pharmacy Students.

To prepare pharmacy and dental students to collaborate as members of an interprofessional team by participating in an interprofessional practice experience. An interprofessional practice experience was implemented within a dental admissions clinic. Pharmacy and dental students collaboratively conducted medical histories and provided tobacco cessation education.

Levels of emotional awareness during psychotherapy among gynecologic cancer patients.

Objective: Emotional awareness is the ability to recognize, describe, and attend to emotions. A known correlate is emotional processing, the ability to orient to and use inner experiences for information. The goal was to examine emotional awareness during therapy among gynecologic cancer patients, identify baseline predictors, and explore the relationship between in-session emotional awareness and processing.

Interpersonal processes and intimacy among men with localized prostate cancer and their partners.

The present study focused on intimacy processes in the relationships of men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer and their partners. Using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), we examined the interpersonal process model of intimacy, which proposes associations between self- and perceived partner disclosure about cancer and perceived partner responsiveness as predictors of global relationship intimacy. The study's outcomes were patients' and spouses' ratings of global relationship intimacy.

Impact of a novel interprofessional dental and pharmacy student tobacco cessation education programme on dental patient outcomes.

The dental setting presents a unique opportunity to assist patients with tobacco cessation. Many dental providers do not feel prepared to provide tobacco cessation, particularly with regard to education on pharmacological treatments. An interprofessional practice experience with dental and pharmacy students provides a novel approach to tobacco cessation in the dental setting, but it is not known whether such methods affect patient outcomes.

Dental Students' Attitudes Toward Tobacco Cessation in the Dental Setting: A Systematic Review.

Many dental schools have integrated tobacco cessation into their predoctoral curricula. However, dental students' perceptions should be taken into consideration when designing those curricula. The aim of this study was to systematically review the published literature on dental students' attitudes and perceptions regarding tobacco cessation.

Identifying Noncognitive Skills That Contribute to Dental Students' Success: Dental Faculty Perspectives.

The aims of this study were to identify noncognitive factors that dental faculty members perceived to contribute to dental students' success and to assess dental faculty members' ratings of the relative importance of these factors to academic performance, clinical performance, and overall success. Out of 184 eligible faculty members at one U.S.

Emotional processing during psychotherapy among women newly diagnosed with a gynecological cancer.

Objective: Our aim was to compare changes in emotional processing by women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancer enrolled in either a coping and communication skills intervention (CCI) or a supportive counseling (SC) intervention. We examined the association between in-session emotional processing and patient-rated therapeutic progress.

Method: Three therapy sessions with 201 patients were rated for the depth of emotional processing (peak and mode) during emotion episodes (EEs) using the Experiencing Rating Scale (EXP).

A comparison of two psychological interventions for newly-diagnosed gynecological cancer patients.

Objective: This study compared the efficacy of two psychological interventions, a coping and communication-enhancing intervention (CCI) and supportive counseling (SC), in reducing depressive symptoms, cancer-specific distress, fear of recurrence, and emotional well-being of women diagnosed with gynecological cancer. Demographic, medical, and psychological moderators of intervention effects were evaluated.

Methods: Three hundred fifty-two women with gynecological cancer were randomly assigned to eight sessions of CCI, eight sessions of SC, or usual care (UC).

Therapy processes, progress, and outcomes for 2 therapies for gynecological cancer patients.

Objective: Although a number of effective psychotherapies have been identified for cancer patients, little is known about therapy processes, as they unfold the course of treatment and the role of therapy processes in treatment outcome. We used growth curve modeling to evaluate the associations between therapy processes and outcomes among gynecological cancer patients participating in 2 types of therapy.

Methods: Two hundred twenty five women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancer were randomly assigned to receive 8 sessions of a coping and communication intervention or a client-centered supportive therapy.

Smoking status, dental visits and receipt of tobacco counseling in dental office among mobile and trailer home adolescents.

Background: Mobile and trailer home (MTHs) residents are an understudied group. In this study we determined the cigarette smoking status, dental visits in the past 12 months, and receipt of tobacco counseling in adolescents living in MTHs compared to adolescents living in other types of housing.

Methods: For this secondary data analysis study, we used data of adolescents aged 10 to 19 years (n = 74,890) from the 2012 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey (FYTS).

Attitudes and Decisional Conflict Regarding Breast Reconstruction Among Breast Cancer Patients.

Background: The decision to undergo breast reconstruction (BR) surgery after mastectomy is made during stressful circumstances. Many women do not feel well prepared to make this decision.

Objective: Using the Ottawa Decision Support Framework, this study aims to describe women's reasons to choose or not choose BR, BR knowledge, decisional preparedness, and decisional conflict about BR.

Quality of life trajectories after diagnosis of gynecologic cancer: a theoretically based approach.

Purpose: The course of quality of life after diagnosis of gynecologic cancer is not well understood. We aimed to identify subgroups of gynecologic cancer patients with distinct trajectories of quality of life outcomes in the 18-month period after diagnosis. We also aimed to determine whether these subgroups could be distinguished by predictors derived from Social-Cognitive Processing Theory.

Group-based trajectory modeling of fear of disease recurrence among women recently diagnosed with gynecological cancers.

Objective: Fear of cancer recurrence is an important clinical phenomenon and is associated with decrements in life domains. The study goals were to characterize patterns of global fear of recurrence (FOR) and 4 domains of fear (health, role, womanhood, and death worry) over time in women who were diagnosed with gynecological cancer and to identify demographic, medical, and psychological predictors of FOR.

Method: One hundred eighteen women participating in the usual care arm of a randomized trial completed the Concerns about Recurrence scale as well as measures of depressive symptoms, cancer-specific distress, coping, coping efficacy, and social network responses at 4 time points.

Barriers to psychological care among primary caregivers of children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Purpose: This substudy of an intervention trial aimed to describe barriers to participation in psychological care among primary caregivers of children who were about to undergo a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), including demographic and medical correlates.

Method: Three hundred and twelve primary caregivers of children undergoing HSCT who were approached to participate in a psychological intervention trial (n = 218 enrollees and 94 decliners) completed a measure of barriers to psychological care.

Results: The most frequently endorsed barriers to care were focusing on the child as priority, not wanting to leave the child's bedside, and already having adequate psychosocial support.

Acceptability and pilot efficacy trial of a web-based breast reconstruction decision support aid for women considering mastectomy.

Objective: The study aim was to test the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a novel interactive web-based breast reconstruction decision support aid (BRAID) for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients considering mastectomy.

Methods: Fifty-five women considering mastectomy were randomly assigned to receive the BRAID versus the Cancer Support Community's Frankly Speaking About Cancer: Breast Reconstruction pamphlet. Participants completed measures of breast reconstruction (BR) knowledge, preparation to make a decision, decisional conflict, anxiety, and BR intentions before randomization and 2 weeks later.

Holding back, intimacy, and psychological and relationship outcomes among couples coping with prostate cancer.

The present study evaluated intimacy as a mechanism for the effects of holding back sharing concerns about cancer on couples' psychological distress, well-being, and marital satisfaction using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), and evaluated 2 possible moderators of these associations: the number of patient and spouse cancer concerns. We had 139 men treated for localized prostate cancer in the past year and their spouses complete surveys about holding back sharing cancer concerns, intimacy, distress, and relationship satisfaction, as well as patient and spouse cancer concerns. APIM-indicated that the association between holding back sharing concerns, and patient and spouse distress, well-being, and relationship satisfaction could be partially accounted for by their influence on patient and spouse perceptions of relationship intimacy.

A systematic review of ovarian cancer and fear of recurrence.

Objective: To assess demographic, medical, and psychological factors that are associated with fear of recurrence (FCR) in ovarian cancer patients.

Method: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. For PubMed, a search using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) was run, as well as a text-word search from 1990 to July of 2014.

Resilience, Positive Coping, and Quality of Life Among Women Newly Diagnosed With Gynecological Cancers.

Background: Resilience has been linked to psychological adaptation to many challenging life events.

Objective: The goal was to examine 3 coping strategies--expressing positive emotions, positive reframing of the cancer experience, and cultivating a sense of peace and meaning in life--as potential mechanisms by which resilience translates to quality of life among women recently diagnosed with gynecological cancer.

Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized baseline data from women diagnosed with gynecological cancer participating in an ongoing randomized clinical trial (n = 281; mean age, 55 years; 80% were white).