Worse Anxiety/Depression Symptoms in Patients Adopting ‘Helper’ Role in Breast Cancer Internet Support Group
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lepore et al found that patients assigned a helper role in a breast cancer Internet support group had worse anxiety/depression symptoms after completion of the intervention than those not assigned a helper role.
Study Details
In the study, 183 women diagnosed in the past 36 months with nonmetastatic breast cancer who reported elevated anxiety or depression were randomly assigned to a standard Internet support group condition (n = 95) or an enhanced prosocial condition (n = 88). Both conditions included professionally facilitated live 90-minute weekly chat sessions for 6 weeks and access to a discussion board.
The prosocial condition included structured opportunities to help and encourage others in the support group; patients in the prosocial group received written tips on how to recognize and respond to others’ needs for support and weekly e-mails describing chat topics (eg, fatigue) and instructions to prepare one to two sentences on how their experiences with the chat topic might help others. Distress was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.
Outcomes
Compared with patients in the standard Internet support group condition, those in the prosocial group exhibited more supportive behaviors, including emotional, informational, and companionate support, posted more messages that were other-focused and fewer that were self-focused, and expressed less negative emotion (all P < .05). However, those in the prosocial group had a higher level of depression and anxiety symptoms at 1 month after the intervention (P < .05).
The investigators concluded: “Despite the successful manipulation of supportive behaviors, the [prosocial Internet support group] did not produce better mental health outcomes in distressed survivors of breast cancer relative to [a standard Internet support group]. The prosocial manipulation may have inadvertently constrained women from expressing their needs openly, and thus, they may not have had their needs fully met in the group.”
Stephen J. Lepore, PhD, of Temple University, is the corresponding author for the Journal of Clinical Oncology article.
The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Joanne S. Buzaglo, PhD, reported a consultant or advisory role with Genentech, Pfizer, Onyx, Celgene, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.
