Psychotherapy alone versus collaborative psychotherapy and psychiatric care in the treatment of depression and anxiety in patients with cancer: A naturalistic, observational study

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveAt present, there is a paucity of naturalistic studies directly comparing the effectiveness of psychotherapy alone versus collaborative psychotherapy and psychiatric care in the management of depression and anxiety in patients with cancer. This study tested the hypothesis that collaborative psychiatric and psychological care would lead to greater reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with cancer compared with psychotherapy alone.MethodsWe analyzed treatment outcomes of 433 adult patients with cancer, of which 252 patients received psychotherapy alone and 181 patients received collaborative psychotherapy and psychiatric care. Longitudinal changes in depressive (i.e., PHQ‐9) and anxiety symptoms (GAD‐7) were examined between groups using latent growth curve modeling.ResultsAfter controlling for treatment length and psychotherapy provider effects, results indicated collaborative care was more effective than psychotherapy alone for depressive symptoms (γ12 = −0.13, p = 0.037). The simple slope for collaborative care was −0.25 (p = 0.022) and the simple slope for psychotherapy alone was −0.13 (p = 0.006), suggesting collaborative care resulted in greater reductions in depressive symptoms compared with psychotherapy alone. In contrast, there were no significant differences between psychotherapy alone and collaborative psychotherapy and psychiatric care in reducing anxiety symptoms (γ12 = −0.08, p = 0.158).ConclusionsCollaborative psychotherapy and psychiatric care may individually address unique aspects of mental health conditions in patients with cancer, namely depressive symptoms. Mental healthcare efforts may benefit from implementing collaborative care models where patients receive psychiatric services and psychotherapy to effectively address depressive symptoms in the treatment of this patient population.