Combined Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Exercise Intervention for Improving Psychological Well-Being in Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Combining mindfulness-based stress reduction with exercise therapy improves anxiety, depression, sleep quality, and overall psychological distress in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who have not had surgery. Sixty such patients were divided into two groups of thirty; one group received conventional psychological nursing care, while the other received the combined intervention. At six and eight weeks after treatment, both groups showed significantly lower scores on measures of anxiety, depression, sleep quality, and the Brief Symptom Rating Scale, but the combined intervention group showed significantly greater improvements than the control group at those time points.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study aims to assess the clinical effectiveness of combining mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) with exercise intervention in improving anxiety, depression, sleep quality and mood regulation in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 60 patients with NSCLC who had not received surgical treatment were selected using convenience sampling and divided into an intervention group and control group, with 30 patients in each group. The control group received conventional psychological nursing care, whereas the intervention group received a combination of MBwSR and exercise therapy. Before the intervention, a questionnaire was completed to collect the basic data of the two groups. Further questionnaires were administered at 6 and 8 weeks after treatment to assess anxiety, depression, sleep quality and other items included in the five-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5). No significant differences between the intervention and control groups were identified in terms of personal and clinical characteristics (p > 0.05). No significant differences were determined in the BSRS-5, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) or Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores between the intervention and control groups before the intervention. However, 6 and 8 weeks after the intervention, scores were significantly lower in both groups (p < 0.001). Significant differences in the BSRS-5, SAS, SDS and PSQI scores were identified between the two groups at different time points (p < 0.001). The combination of MBSR and exercise intervention demonstrated improvements in anxiety, depression, sleep quality and BSRS-5 scores in patients with NSCLC.