Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology Advance Access originally published online on November 12, 2008
Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology 2008 38(12):867-870; doi:10.1093/jjco/hyn115
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
Problem-Solving Therapy for Psychological Distress in Japanese Cancer Patients: Preliminary Clinical Experience from Psychiatric Consultations

1 Department of Psychiatry and Cognitive-Behavioral Medicine, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya, Aichi
2 Center for the Study of Communication Design, Osaka University, Osaka
3 Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka
4 Department of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Clinical Psychology, Kansai University of Welfare Sciences, Osaka
5 Nagoya City University School of Nursing, Nagoya, Japan
For reprints and all correspondence: Tatsuo Akechi, Department of Psychiatry and Cognitive-Behavioral Medicine, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Mizuho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan. E-mail: takechi{at}med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
Received August 25, 2008; accepted September 22, 2008
Problem-solving therapy (PST) is a brief, structured psychological treatment. Preliminary clinical findings regarding the effectiveness of PST for treating psychological distress experienced by Japanese cancer patients are presented. Our actual clinical experience in administering PST to four consecutive distressed cancer patients was reviewed. All of the patients were breast cancer survivors who were referred to us after undergoing surgery. Three cases received six PST sessions each and one case received three PST sessions. The depression and anxiety scores decreased after PST. Our preliminary experience suggests that PST is an effective treatment for alleviating psychological distress in Japanese cancer patients and that this treatment should be further examined in a clinical trial.
Key Words: cancer psychological distress problem-solving therapy psychological intervention
Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.