Emotion and Symptom-Focused Engagement Trial for Individuals With Acute Leukemia

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

The standard or usual care treatment for patients with newly diagnosed acute leukemia involves admission to hospital for treatment (e.g. induction chemotherapy). Additional support services may be delivered if requested or if a doctor thinks it is necessary. Little research has been done looking at ...

The standard or usual care treatment for patients with newly diagnosed acute leukemia involves admission to hospital for treatment (e.g. induction chemotherapy). Additional support services may be delivered if requested or if a doctor thinks it is necessary. Little research has been done looking at the psychological and physical consequences of being diagnosed with and treated for acute leukemia, but our research team has found that a significant number of these individuals experience symptoms of traumatic stress and severe physical symptoms. Even less research has been done looking at ways to help alleviate this psychological and physical distress. Emotion and Symptom-focused Engagement (EASE) is an integrated psychosocial and early palliative care (symptom control) intervention designed to reduce psychological distress and physical symptom burden in patients newly diagnosed with acute leukemia. The EASE intervention provides i) tailored supportive psychotherapy (called EASE-psy) during the initial weeks of treatment to reduce symptoms of traumatic stress, and ii) symptom screening during the initial inpatient treatment period with triggered referral to early palliative care (symptom control) to help manage moderate to severe physical symptoms (called EASE-phys). A phase II trial of EASE in patients with newly diagnosed acute leukemia demonstrated feasibility and preliminary evidence that it reduces psychological distress and physical symptom severity compared to usual care. This new trial is a definitive phase III, multi-site randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of EASE at reducing psychological distress and physical burden.

Tracking Information