Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for distress， depression， anxiety and quality of life in cancer patients： a Meta-analysis

Abstract

BackgroundInternet-based cognitive behavioral therapy （ICBT） is progressively emerging as an efficacious alternative to alleviate anxiety and depression in cancer patients. To date， no Meta-analysis has been conducted specific to the effect of ICBT on anxiety， depression， distress and quality of life in cancer patients.ObjectiveTo assess the effect of ICBT on distress， depression， anxiety and quality of life in cancer patients through a systematic review of the literature.MethodsOn March 28， 2022， PubMed， PsycINFO， Embase， Cochrane Library， Web of Science， CNKI， VIP， Wanfang Data and CBM were retrieved for the randomized controlled trials （RCTs） involving ICBT targeting either distress， depression， anxiety， quality of life or all in cancer patients. After the risk of bias assessment， Stata 17.0 software was used for Meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 12 RCTs with a total sample size of 1 686 patients were included. Meta-analysis revealed that the superiority of ICBT over controls was evident for interventions targeting distress in cancer patients （SMD=-0.547， 95% CI： -1.090~-0.145， P<0.01）， while appeared to be less evident for the interventions targeting depression （SMD=-0.652， 95% CI： -1.734~0.002， P=0.051）， anxiety （SMD=-1.045， 95% CI： -3.656~0.101， P=0.088） and quality of life （SMD=0.234， 95% CI： -0.064~0.449， P=0.112） in cancer patients，and dropout rate was higher in ICBT group than that in control group （OR=1.795， 95% CI：1.358~2.374， P<0.01）.ConclusionICBT is reported to be effective in alleviating distress in cancer patients， whereas results inconsiderable improvements over depression， anxiety and quality of life in cancer patients.

Keywords

• internet
• cognitive behavioral therapy
• cancer patients
• meta-analysis