Lazarov Aneta, Church Dawson, Shidlo Noa, Benyamini Yael
Independent Researcher, Skin Cancer Clinic, Herzliya 4678525, Israel.
National Institute for Integrative Healthcare, Petaluma, CA 94953, USA.
Healthcare (Basel). 2025 Jun 13;13(12):1420. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13121420.
A history of cancer has been linked to stress and concerns about its recurrence. We aimed to test the benefits of an evidence-based self-help stress reduction method, the Clinical Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), in survivors of cutaneous melanoma, and to contrast its effects on wellbeing and perceptions of cancer recurrence when delivered in a group versus individual instruction setting. This study was preregistered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05421988, 3 April 2022). Fifty-three patients aged 18 and above, diagnosed with melanoma (stage T1a-T2a) at least 6 months prior, and not in active treatment were recruited from a private skin cancer clinic. After consent, all participants were randomized in one step into three condition groups: Group EFT (G-EFT; = 16), Individual EFT (I-EFT; = 18), and a waiting-list control condition (CC; = 19). G-EFT and I-EFT participants attended weekly treatment sessions for four weeks. Perceptions of cancer recurrence and wellbeing measures were obtained pre- and post-intervention and at three-months follow-up using online questionnaires. Subjective units of distress (SUDs) were recorded by the EFT instructor at the beginning and end of each session. Two-way repeated measures ANOVAs revealed significant improvements from pre- to post-intervention in both EFT conditions in terms of participants' understanding of how to prevent recurrence and in their spiritual wellbeing. No statistically significant effects were found for fear of recurrence, recurrence perceptions, and affect. Significant decreases in SUD scores were observed in both EFT conditions. Over 80% of the experimental conditions' participants reported positive changes and satisfaction. The findings provide support for offering EFT instruction as a non-pharmacological and noninvasive self-help method to ameliorate the stress of cancer diagnosis and treatment, and for its similar effectiveness in either a group or individual format.
癌症病史与压力以及对癌症复发的担忧有关。我们旨在测试一种循证自助减压方法——临床情绪释放疗法（EFT）对皮肤黑色素瘤幸存者的益处，并对比在小组指导和个体指导环境下该疗法对幸福感以及癌症复发认知的影响。本研究已在clinicaltrials.gov上预先注册（NCT05421988，2022年4月3日）。从一家私立皮肤癌诊所招募了53名18岁及以上的患者，他们至少在6个月前被诊断为黑色素瘤（T1a - T2a期）且未接受积极治疗。在获得同意后，所有参与者一次性随机分为三个条件组：EFT组（G - EFT；n = 16）、个体EFT组（I - EFT；n = 18）和等待名单对照组（CC；n = 19）。G - EFT组和I - EFT组的参与者每周参加一次治疗课程，共四周。在干预前、干预后以及三个月随访时，使用在线问卷获取癌症复发认知和幸福感测量数据。EFT指导者在每次课程开始和结束时记录痛苦主观单位（SUDs）。双向重复测量方差分析显示，在两种EFT条件下，从干预前到干预后，参与者在如何预防复发的理解以及精神幸福感方面都有显著改善。在复发恐惧、复发认知和情感方面未发现统计学上的显著影响。在两种EFT条件下，SUD分数均显著下降。超过80%的实验组参与者报告有积极变化并表示满意。这些发现支持将EFT指导作为一种非药物、非侵入性的自助方法来减轻癌症诊断和治疗的压力，以及支持其在小组或个体形式下具有相似的有效性。
