Reminiscence therapy exhibits alleviation of anxiety and improvement of life quality in postoperative gastric cancer patients: A randomized, controlled study

Although reminiscence therapy alleviates mental illness and improves quality of life in neurocognitive disorders patients, little study reports its clinical application in cancer patients. Thus, this study aimed to explore the effect of reminiscence therapy on anxiety, depression, quality of life, and survival profile in postoperative gastric cancer patients. One hundred sixty surgical gastric cancer patients were enrolled in this randomized, controlled study, then randomly assigned to Reminiscence therapy group (N = 80) and Control group (N = 80) as 1:1 ratio. The evaluation was carried at baseline (M0), month 3 (M3), month 6 (M6), month 9 (M9), and month 12 (M12) after intervention by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life Questionnaire-Core 30 (QLQ-C30). Furthermore, disease-free survival and overall survival were analyzed using follow-up data. Reminiscence therapy decreased HADS for anxiety score at M6, M9, and M12, decreased anxiety rate at M9 and M12 compared to control care; while it did not affect HADS for depression score or depression rate at any time-point. Also, reminiscence therapy raised QLQ-C30 global health status score at M12, reduced QLQ-C30 symptoms score at M6, while did not affect QLQ-C30 function score at any time-point compared to control care. Reminiscence therapy did not affect disease-free survival and overall survival, either. Further subgroup analyses (divided by age and gender) observed that the effect of reminiscence therapy seemed more obvious in patients with age ≤60 years and male patients. Reminiscence therapy exhibits alleviation of anxiety and improvement of quality of life in postoperative gastric cancer patients.