Are psychological interventions effective and accepted by cancer patients? II. Using empirically supported therapy guidelines to decide.

We begin our discussion of the efficacy of psychological interventions for cancer patients by defining basic terms. We define efficacy using evidence-based medicine guidelines. According to these guidelines, an intervention is considered efficacious if two or more randomized clinical trials report positive and significant outcomes. Using this guideline as well as other evidence-based medicine criteria, we rate five recent intervention studies published in top-tier journals. The results of this review suggested that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that cognitive-behavioral interventions are effective in reducing and managing psychological distress in cancer patients and are accepted by these patients.