Zhongguo quanke yixue (Apr 2023)

Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Can Improve Psychological Condition in Breast Cancer Patients: an Overview of Systematic Reviews

  • ZHENG Qingyong, ZHAO Liang, WEI Wei, REN Xuejun, WANG Chao, SUN Rui, CONG Minghua, YU Lei, YANG Min

DOI
https://doi.org/10.12114/j.issn.1007-9572.2022.0649
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 12
pp. 1503 – 1512

Abstract

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Background Worldwide, breast cancer has become the most common malignancy, and many breast cancer survivors struggle with psychological problems in treatment and recovery. The efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in the psychological care of breast cancer patients has been confirmed in many systematic reviews (SRs) . However, due to inconsistent outcome measures used in various SRs, the review results cannot be directly applied to clinical practice. Objective To perform an overview of the SRs of the efficacy of MBSR in breast cancer patients, providing a reference for the making of psychological care interventions for these patients. Methods PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, JBI, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and CBM were searched from inception to July 2022 for SRs of patients with breast cancer treated with MBSR. Literature screening and data extraction were performed by two researchers independently. Methodological quality was assessed using the AMSTAR 2. The standardization of reporting quality was assessed using the PRISMA checklist. Quality of evidence and strength of recommendations were assessed using the GRADE approach. The confidence of evidence from qualitative SRs was assessed using the CERQual. Results Fourteen SRs were included. The methodological quality of included SRs was generally low, with only one being of high quality and two fatally missing key items. The defects in reporting quality were mainly in study protocol registration, risk of bias assessment and funding sources. Fifteen outcomes and 73 evidence bodies (0, 31, 28 and 6 were classified as high, moderate, low, and very low quality, respectively, by the GRADE approach, and the other 8 were classified as low quality by the CERQual approach) were identified in the SRs in total. MBSR could relieve anxiety, depression, fatigue, and stress in breast cancer patients to varying degrees, whose efficacy has proven to be significant in a short-term, but is uncertain in a long-term. Conclusion Generally, SRs on MBSR improving psychological condition in breast cancer patients contain unsatisfactory quality of evidence, whose methodological quality and standardization level of reporting quality still need to be improved further. Moreover, the shorter-term effect of MBSR has been confirmed, but its long-term effect is uncertain, and requires to be evaluated by more high-quality, large-sample clinical studies.

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