Effects of meditation on anxiety, depression, fatigue, and quality of life of women undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE:
To investigate the effects of meditation on anxiety, depression, fatigue, and quality of life in women who are receiving radiation therapy for breast cancer.
DESIGN:
Randomized, non-program controlled, parallel intervention clinical trial.
SETTING:
The ASAN Cancer Center located in Seoul, Korea.
INTERVENTION:
The subjects of this study included 102 female breast cancer patients who had undergone breast-conserving surgery; these female patients were randomized into equally assigned meditation control groups, with each group consisting of 51 patients. The test group received a total of 12 meditation therapy sessions during their 6-week radiation therapy period, and the control group underwent only a conventional radiation therapy.
OUTCOME:
The tools used to evaluate the effects of meditation were Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, Revised Piper Fatigue scale, and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Quality of Life Core-30. The results were analyzed based on the principles of intention-to-treat analysis, and, as a corollary analysis, per-protocol analysis was conducted.
RESULTS:
The breast cancer patients who received meditation therapy compared with the non-intervention group saw improvements in reduction of anxiety (p=.032), fatigue (p=.030), and improvement in global quality of life (p=.028).
CONCLUSIONS:
Based on the results of this study, an affirmation can be made that meditation can be used as a non-invasive intervention treatment for improving fatigue, anxiety, quality of life, and emotional faculties of women with breast cancer.
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
Anxiety, Breast cancer, Fatigue, Meditation, Quality of life

PMID: 23876569