Preventing Persistent Pain and Reducing Depressive and Anxious Symptoms Following Mastectomy and Lumpectomy

Summary

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Psychological interventions addressing depression, anxiety, and psychological approaches to pain management in pre-surgical patients may serve to prevent the development of persistent post-surgical pain, depression, and anxiety in at-risk individuals. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a psy...

Psychological interventions addressing depression, anxiety, and psychological approaches to pain management in pre-surgical patients may serve to prevent the development of persistent post-surgical pain, depression, and anxiety in at-risk individuals. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a psychological therapy that has been shown to be effective in minimizing the impairing impact of chronic pain and in treating depression and anxiety. ACT is a behavior therapy incorporating mindfulness, which aims to increase psychological flexibility via facilitating psychological acceptance and committed action in the direction of one's personally identified values. ACT has also shown promise in brief interventions, including a one day ACT workshop with patients with comorbid migraine and depression. The current study proposes to identify pre-operative breast cancer patients who are at increased risk for developing persistent post-surgical pain and to offer a brief ACT intervention with the aim of reducing the incidence of persistence post-surgical pain and psychological sequela.

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