The term 'group Psychotherapy' or 'group therapy' is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group, and may refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, including cognitive behavioral therapy or interpersonal therapy.
Anderson and his team of researchers conducted their study on 227 women with breast cancerdefine. Approximately half of these had participated in a psychological group therapy in groups of eight to ten patients for 12 months, out of which they had weekly sessions for four months and monthly sessions for the remaining eight months.
All the participants were either in Stage II or Stage III of their cancer and the therapy sessions began after the women had breast cancer surgery but before they started chemotherapy and radiation
define treatments.
Based on the therapy and other research work, these researchers revealed that after eleven years, the women who had participated in group therapy had reduced their chances of death due to the disease by 56 percent. As for chances of relapsing with the disease, researchers found out that these women were 45 percent less prone to it.
Anderson said, "Survival is kind of the bottom line when it comes to cancer. So we have people being healthy, productive people for longer and that's a huge health outcome."
Andersen said the group sessions delivered some other useful information as well, like methods of reducing stress levels of women, how to use different types of relaxation techniques, how can coping skills be improved, and the correct diet charts and exercise habits to be followed. It also encouraged patients to quit smoking and alcohol.
However, this recent finding is contradictory to the past studies held by various scientists. The benefits of group psycho therapy over a deadly disease like breast cancer have remained under skepticism since the last two decades.
In one of his statements, Michael Stefanek, an American Cancer Society behavioral research expert, said, "Psychological interventions have been found in the majority of well-controlled studies to enhance quality of life and reduce distress. It would not be reasonable for patients to participate in psychological interventions with the goal of extending survival."
Another psychologist who acknowledged the general advantages of group therapy, however, cautioned against its established foolproof benefits to breast cancer patients saying, "I think we need to be cautious before we say it's going to increase survival."
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