Mindfulness to enhance quality of life and support advance care planning: a pilot randomized controlled trial for adults with advanced cancer and their family caregivers.
BMC palliative care September 28, 2024 Catherine E Mosher, Kathleen A Beck-Coon, Wei Wu et al. 17 citations
A mindfulness-based group intervention for patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers improved patients' existential well-being and confidence in advance care planning, while usual-care patients did not show these gains. Caregivers in the mindfulness program also reported moderate improvements in quality of life and reduced burden one month later. However, most other outcomes—including anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, and cognitive avoidance—did not differ significantly between the mindfulness and usual-care groups. The pilot trial randomly assigned 33 patient-caregiver dyads to six weekly mindfulness sessions and 22 dyads to usual care, recruiting from five oncology clinics in the midwestern United States.