Alina Ioana CÎMPEAN1
alina.cimpean904@gmail.com
1 Doctoral School Evidence-based assessment and psychological interventions, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Abstract
Besides physical symptoms, literature suggests that cancer patients often experience comorbid anxiety, depression, and a low quality of life Asmundson & Katz, 2009), which may impede medical treatment (Brennan, 2011). Individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) proved to be efficient and costeffective in reducing depression, anxiety, cancer side effects, and in improving quality of life (Osborn, Demoncada, & Feuerstein, 2006; Montgomery et al., 2009). Moreover, virtual reality (VR) is a well-accepted tool for delivering specific components of CBT, such as relaxation (Anderson et al., 2017). The present study aims to compare standard CBT for cancer patients with CBT VR in a sample of patients who followed cervical cancer surgery. In this group, VR was used as an alternative for imagery. Our results showed no difference between groups. However, taken together, there are significant differences from pre to post intervention on pain catastrophizing, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The possible implications of the present study are discussed.
Keywords: CBT, VR, pain catastrophizing, psychopathology
Published online: 2019/03/01
Published print: 2019/03/01
