Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression and Anxiety, Response Rates and Adverse Events in Patients with Locoregional Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Purpose: This retrospective study investigated the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on depression, anxiety, response rates, and adverse events in patients with locoregional advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods: A total of 269 patients with diagnosis of stage III-IVA NPC received either CBT plus chemoradiotherapy (CBT group, n = 136) or treatment as usual (TAU) plus chemoradiotherapy (TAU group, n = 133). Patients in the CBT group received a series of 6 CBT sessions for 6 weeks during concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Depression and anxiety were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) score at baseline, the completion of radiotherapy, and 6, 12, and 24 months after radiotherapy. Response rates and adverse events were also evaluated.

Results: Patients in the CBT group showed significantly less depression and anxiety than patients in the TAU group after the completion of radiotherapy ( < .05). Complete response rates were 99.3% (135/136) and 92.5% (123/133) in the CBT group and TAU group with a small effect size (Phi coefficient = .171), respectively ( = .005). Compared with the TAU group, the CBT group showed a significantly lower incidence of acute adverse events and late toxic effects.

Conclusions: The addition of CBT to chemoradiotherapy significantly reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms. CBT combined with chemoradiotherapy is associated with improved response rates, with reduced incidence of toxic effects in patients with locoregional advanced NPC. Based on this study, we registered a randomized controlled clinical trials to better define the role of CBT in patients with locoregional advanced NPC (Registration number: ChiCTR2000034701).