Psychological interventions to reduce pain in patients with cancer.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

To review relevant studies about psychological interventions among patients with cancer pain.

RECENT FINDINGS

We used MEDLINE as a source of studies on psychological interventions between January 2012 and December 2012. Most studies were randomized, but there was no homogeneity in terms of psychological intervention types or pain evaluation.

SUMMARY

Not all studies with psychological interventions measured pain as a primary outcome; pain was measured inconsistently across studies, pain raters were rarely blinded, few studies carefully described the other treatments (pharmacological or not), and patients were observed for only a limited period of time. Despite these limitations, the positive findings of this review advance support for the importance of psychological interventions on reducing pain among patients with cancer, and for the implementation of quality-controlled psychosocial interventions as part of a multimodal approach to the management of pain.