The chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer, because of its debilitating nature, has associated with it a host of anticipatory side effects including anxiety, nausea, and vomiting. These anticipatory symptoms are described as conditioned negative responses to stimuli associated with the aversive event of chemotherapy. A review of the literature indicates the use of several behavioral interventions in an attempt to ameliorate some of the adverse effects of cancer chemotherapy; e.g., progressive muscle relaxation, systematic desensitization, hypnosis. These investigations have further proven effective in producing decreases in anticipatory anxiety, nausea, and vomiting in addition to reductions in physiological indices of arousal and, to a lesser extent, post-chemotherapy nausea and vomiting. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the relative effectiveness of three behavioral interventions in reducing anticipatory side effects of cancer chemotherapy. Specifically, the project will investigate the following: (1) Evaluate and compare the relative effectiveness of multiple-site EMG (electromyographic) biofeedback, systematic desensitization, and Jacobson progressive muscle relaxation training. (2) determine which patients benefit most from specific relaxation training procedures and identify factors which predispose patients to adverse reactions from chemotherapy. (3) Assess whether patients are able to maintain or transfer learned relaxation effects to the treatment condition without guidance from a therapist. In order to investigate the aforementioned areas, 80 ambulatory outpatient cancer patients will be recruited for participation in the study. These subjects will participate in six sessions: one baselines, three treatment, and two follow-up. A no treatment (no relaxation) condition will be used as the control group. Subjects will be asked to complete several sefl-report instruments pre-post chemotherapy treatments designed to assess coping styles, social support, ability for concentrated attention, or absorption, expectancies, and the degree of experienced anxiety, nausea, and vomiting. In addition, several physiological indices of arousal will be assessed such as pulse rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and muscle tension levels. Nurses will rate the patient's degree of experienced anxiety, nausea, and vomiting.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter