Adjuvant Psychological Therapy: Definition, Characteristics And Techniques
Suffering from a medical illness entails, in addition to the physical symptoms of the illness, a series of psychological and emotional alterations that cannot be ignored
Thus, the ideal is that medical treatment is applied in combination with psychological treatment focused on treating these alterations.
Today we will talk about a very specific therapy, Adjuvant Psychological Therapy, aimed at the treatment of cancer patients Let’s see what it consists of and the techniques it uses. In addition, we will learn about people’s coping responses to diseases.
Adjuvant Psychological Therapy (APT) It was developed by Moorey and Gree r (1989) and is intended for cancer patients. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated in various research, providing short and long-term benefits.
ADT is based on Beck’s Cognitive Therapy (Beck, 1976) and research carried out with patients with breast cancer. It is a therapy that includes psychoeducation and considers the active collaboration of the patient essential
The intervention with Adjuvant Psychological Therapy is carried out in a series of 6 to 12 sessions lasting one hour (approximately). The essential goal of therapy is to increase the patient’s well-being and survival time through the achievement of more specific goals. Some of them are:
Elements of the TPA
Adjuvant Psychological Therapy is based on the hypothesis that psychological morbidity related to cancer is determined, in addition to the real consequences of the disease, by two fundamental variables:
These two variables are analyzed in therapy, delving into the person’s personal relationships and the quality of the emotional support they receive from them.
On the other hand, in Adjuvant Psychological Therapy the quality of emotional support is analyzed that the patient receives from his family, friends, doctors and nurses, which influences the two aforementioned variables of the therapy.
Coping responses
The patient’s coping responses are those psychological, social and emotional mechanisms that the person uses to confront the illness and try to recover from it.
Two authors, Watson (1988) and Greer (1989) collect five categories of psychological responses to cancer. Let’s see them:
1. Fighting spirit
It is about adopting an optimistic attitude towards the disease, being convinced to fight against it and accept the diagnosis in its entirety
It is typical of people who approach life’s obstacles as challenges instead of difficulties.
2. Helplessness/hopelessness
It is the adoption of a defeatist and pessimistic attitude towards the disease. The person has no hope of recovery.
It implies that cancer suddenly and continuously breaks into life of the patient, who cannot think of anything else. It is a dysfunctional mechanism that makes it difficult to cope with the disease and adhere to treatment.
3. Anxious Worry
Here the anxiety is intense and persistent, and often accompanied by depressive symptoms The patient actively seeks information about cancer but interprets it in a pessimistic and negative way. Each symptom of the disease is experienced in a highly worrying way and the patient always associates it with the exacerbation of the cancer.
When the coping response is this, the patient usually turns to alternative treatments to treat their condition.
4. Fatalism (Stoic Acceptance)
The patient adopts a fatalistic attitude to the situation; He accepts the illness with resignation, experiencing it as something irremediable and that has no cure. Does not take any measures to confront the disease simply accepts the diagnosis and does not seek further information or resources.
5. Avoidance (Denial)
The person does not accept the diagnosis, denies it or even avoids using the word “cancer.” It may also be that you recognize the diagnosis but deny or minimize its severity, as well as the negative symptoms it produces.
TPA techniques
The psychological techniques included in Adjuvant Psychological Therapy are very varied. Some of them are:
When treating the psychological alterations associated with cancer, one should take into account, among other elements, the automatic negative thoughts (ANP) underlying the disease. The objective will be to identify and modify them, and this will be carried out through cognitive techniques.
