Support Groups Don't Improve Breast Cancer Survival Rates

Will joining a support group, or getting psychotherapy, help prolong your life as a breast cancer survivor?

 

Yes, said Dr. David Spiegel, currently associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, whose landmark 1989 study indicated that there was a “significant difference” in survival time between breast cancer patients who attended weekly support groups, and those who didn’t. Spiegel, a Yale and Harvard grad, published research revealing that support-group attendees lived an average of 36.6 months from the time they joined a support group, vs. the control group of women not seeking support services, who lived an average of 18.9 months. That study has been widely referred to ever since by women claiming the value of support services.

 

No, say numerous subsequent studies, including one by Dr. James Coyne, whose paper in the May issue of the Psychological Bulletin refutes Spiegel’s study. Coyne, a Carnegie-Mellon and Indiana University grad, is currently an investigator at the Leonard and Marilyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute in Philadelphia. He’s also co-director of Health Services and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, where he’s a professor. He’s consistently ranked among the top 20 psychologists in North America for impact of his work, as measured in citation analyses.

 

But does that mean psychotherapy and support groups for breast cancer patients are a waste of time?

 

Absolutely not, says Dr. Coyne. So long as the women receiving psychotherapy, or attending a support group, understand what they’re there for: what the benefits are and, just as importantly, what they aren’t. (And what’s the difference between psychotherapy and a support group, by the way? Dr. Coyne clarifies that psychotherapy is more leader-focused, with more specific tasks; while a support group is more woman-to-woman, involving women drawing on their own expertise.)

 

“The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better,” said Dr. Coyne in a recent interview, referring to the oft-disputed strength of the link between mind and body. While Eastern societies have long believed in a strong mind-body link, with the mind able to control many of the body’s physical functions, Western society has had a harder time embracing this link, preferring to look at the purely scientific picture. Now, however, as Eastern practices (Reiki, Tai Chi, yoga, meditation, et. al.) are slowly gaining more credence in the West–witness the popularity of Dr. Mehmet Oz and the success of his books–Coyne warns that there’s a certain danger attached to this shift. “Let’s not oversell the mind-body benefits, and give short shrift to the psychological benefits,” he said. “Quality of life is important, too; we don’t want that attitude of ‘You only feel better, but you’re really not better.’ ” 

 

Dr. Coyne, when asked what had prompted him to undertake his study concerning survival rates and support groups, said that lots of literature has accumulated since Spiegel’s research, including recent studies that refute Spiegel’s findings. “I’d been thinking, how, as behavioral scientists, can we help [cancer survivors]?”  Coyne said he’s recently been studying male cancer survivors without partners, and how they seem to be at a disadvantage in the adherence to and outcome of cancer treatment, compared to women without partners. “Why is this, I wondered? What are the behaviors involved? I began thinking about survival–and that led me to re-examine the Spiegel study.”