Psychological intervention improves quality of life for patients with breast cancer

Objective: To investigate how to improve quality of life for patients with breast cancer by psychological intervention. Methods: A total of 263 breast cancer patients and their spouses were analyzed retrospectively. Both patients and their spouses received psychological counseling in an intervention group. Patients and their spouses who received routine nursing care were treated as a control group. The couples answered quality of life questionnaires (using the QLQ-30 scale), pre-and post-treatment depression self-assessment questionnaires (SDS), and self-assessments of anxiety (SAS). Results: After treatment, the SDS and SAS scores of the intervention group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). The SDS and SAS scores of the spouses of the intervention group after treatment were lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). The scores of the QLQ-30 scale between the two groups showed that there was no significant difference in physical function scores and pain scores (P>0.05), but there were significant differences in cognitive function, social activity function, emotional function, and marrital life scores. The most significant difference between the groups was found in the scores of emotional functioning in the two groups. The scores in the intervention group (87.54 +/- 7.85) were significantly higher than those in the control group (65.94 +/- 8.07), P<0.01. Conclusion: Psychological interventions for breast cancer patients and their spouses can effectively improve the quality of life for the cancer patients, and therefore, these interventions are worthy of promotion in clinical practice.