Therapist-led interventions for the treatment of traumatic stress symptoms in cancer survivors: A systematic literature review

Objective We reviewed the evidence regarding the effectiveness of therapist-led interventions for reducing symptoms of traumatic stress in cancer survivors. Methods This systematic review was completed in accordance with the guidelines illustrated by Popay and colleagues and the following online databases, PsychInfo, Medline, CINAHL, were searched for peer-reviewed literature. Further studies were searched through Google Scholar and manually scanning the reference lists of all included studies. The PRISMA guidelines were followed to report results. Results Sixteen studies were identified, their quality varied and the interventions broadly fell into two categories: CBT-based and non-CBT interventions. Effect sizes were small to moderate in 12 studies and large in four. Drop-out rates were mostly low. Conclusion This review has demonstrated that the research in this field is still scarce and due to the data mostly suggesting a small to moderate effect, firm conclusions cannot be drawn on the effectiveness of the included interventions.