The efficacy of Life Review Therapy combined with Memory Specificity Training (LRT-MST) targeting cancer patients in palliative Care: a Randomized Controlled Trial

The aim of this study
was to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention combining Life Review Therapy
(LRT) and Memory Specificity Training (MST) (LRT-MST) to improve ego-integrity
and despair among cancer patients in palliative care.
In
this multicentre randomized controlled trial, cancer patients in palliative
care were randomized to the intervention group (LRT-MST; n=55) or waiting-list
control group (n=52). LRT-MST is a 4-session home-based psychological
intervention that aims to retrieve specific positive memories, to re-evaluate
life events and to reconstruct the story of a patient’s life, including the
diagnosis of incurable cancer. Outcome measures were ego-integrity and despair (NEIS),
psychological distress, anxiety and depression (HADS), quality of life (EORTC
QLQ-C15-PAL), and specificity of the autobiographical memory (AMT). NEIS, HADS
and EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL were assessed at baseline (T0), 1 month later (post-treatment;
T1), and at 1 month follow-up (T2). AMT was assessed at T0 and T1.