Abstract

Gynaecological cancer patients experience psychological morbidity due to the aggressive nature of the illness and treatment. In the last three decades, researchers have been developing studies to investigate the efficacy of psychological interventions to be used in this group of patients. The present review addresses the most recent knowledge about counselling and cognitive behaviour interventions to improve psychological morbidity and emotional functioning in patients suffering from gynaecological cancers. Five studies met our review inclusion criteria and were evaluated. Despite our inability to provide firm conclusions about the efficacy of counselling and cognitive behaviour interventions in these patients, given the limited amount of data accumulated to date, methodological and intervention differences between studies and the mixed findings obtained, there is an urgent need for further larger and rigorous research in order to understand the effects and value of these interventions. This would hopefully provide clearer answers for those working in the field and essential information to establish evidence based services.

Keywords: Counselling interventions, cognitive behaviour interventions, psychological morbidity, quality of life, Gynaecological Cancer Patients, psychological interventions, Cancer Therapy, cervical cancer, vulvar cancers