Effects of Psychotherapy on Hope/Hopelessness in Adults with Cancer: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Although psychotherapy is a common treatment for hopelessness and hope, the effectiveness remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively synthesize available evidence related to the effect of a broad range of psychotherapy interventions on hope/hopelessness in cancer patients.

Method: Eight electronic databases were searched for studies with adult cancer patients (mean age ≥ 18 years) receiving psychotherapy interventions with hope/hopelessness measured as outcomes and written in English. We used the random-effects model to compute effect size using Hedges' g and conducted moderator analyses.

Results: We found 27 primary studies which included 1,998 participants who were 57.6 ± 8.0 years old across studies. The psychotherapy effect size ranged from - 0.86 to 2.92. Researchers who conducted psychotherapy at hospital/health centers showed higher effects, that is, improved hope scores (g = 0.63), than those who conducted psychotherapy in the community (g = 0.05). When researchers enrolled participants alone, psychotherapy resulted in higher effects (g = 0.62) than when partners/caregivers were involved (g = - 0.04). Researchers who included group discussion showed lower effects (g = 0.36) than without group discussion (g = 1.10). Researchers who examined fidelity found lower effects (g = 0.16) than researchers who did not examine fidelity (g = 0.66). Interestingly, researchers who studied people with breast cancer showed higher effects (g = 0.96) than those who studied people with other types of cancer (g = 0.26). Researchers who included higher percentages of women showed greater effects (slope = 0.008, Q = 3.99, p = 0.046). Finally, the greater the time span between psychotherapy and the measurement of hope, the lower the psychotherapy effects (slope = - 0.002, Q = 4.25, p = 0.039).

Conclusion: Psychotherapy had a solid moderate effect on reducing hopelessness and improving hope in cancer patients compared to controls.