Counseling aids prostate cancer patients and wives

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Just a few counseling sessions may help both men and their wives deal with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, a study published Monday suggests.

Past research has found that wives often suffer even more emotional distress than their husbands after a prostate cancer diagnosis. Besides dealing with their own anxiety, wives have to take on the role of caregiver -- yet there are few resources available to help them.

The new study, reported in the journal Cancer, evaluated a program designed to improve quality of life for prostate cancer patients and their spouses.

Dr. Laurel L. Northouse, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and associates, randomly assigned 235 couples to either standard care or standard care plus five sessions with a nurse specially trained to help couples deal with prostate cancer. Three of the sessions were conducted in couples' homes and two were done over the phone.

Couples were given information about prostate cancer and its treatment, and learned ways to deal with their stress, maintain a positive outlook and better communicate with each other.

At the outset, then again every four months over the next year, couples completed questionnaires on their quality of life and success in dealing with the disease.

By the study's end, the researchers found, men who received counseling reported less uncertainty about their condition and better communication with their wives than men in the comparison group.

Meanwhile, their wives seemed to benefit even more -- reporting better quality of life, self-confidence and communication than women in the comparison group, as well as less uncertainty and hopelessness.

Wives might have benefited more from the program because they had an even greater need for it than their husbands did, according to the researchers.

In past research, Northouse and her colleagues have found that wives often had more emotional distress than prostate cancer patients themselves, but received less help for it.

Taken together, these findings suggest that, "at a minimum," prostate cancer patients' spouses need to be included in the treatment process, Northouse's team concludes.

"Too often," the investigators write, "they are viewed as outside observers or only as providers of care. Instead, clinicians need to recognize that spouses are affected by the cancer and to treat them as corecipients of care."

SOURCE: Cancer, December 15, 2007.