Discuss some aspects of psychological interventions for cancer patients, including types, goals, and outcomes.​

A. Psychologists use both individual and group therapy techniques.
B. An intervention should accomplish at least one of two goals to be effective:
1. Increase survival time;
2. Improve emotional wellbeing;
1. Or both of these.
C. Reviews find that psychological interventions in general realize short-term benefits for helping cancer patients manage their distress related to the illness.
D. Some physiological outcomes, like immune function measures and cortisol responses, are improved for women with breast cancer by some psychological interventions.
E. Some psychological interventions focus on cognitive behavioral stress management skills.
F. Some psychological interventions focus on providing social support and opportunities for expressing emotions.
G. Research finds evidence that both types of interventions improves some patient outcomes.
H. To be effective for every individual, any psychotherapeutic, educational, supportive, or multi-component program should be matched to individual cancer patient needs and characteristics.
I. There is less evidence that psychological interventions prolong cancer patients' life spans.
1. Some researchers observed that breast cancer patients for whom a multi-component psychological intervention managed pain, anxiety, and depression also lived longer. This observation motivated other researchers to investigate this possibility further.
2. Though one subsequent study found some evidence, large-scale reviews find little evidence that psychological interventions reliably extend the length of survival for cancer patients.
3. Therefore, improving the cancer patient's quality of life is the main value of psychological interventions.