Anna Casellas-Grau

Catalan Institute of Oncology | ICO · Department of Psycho-oncology

En nuestra práctica clínica es habitual que, tras finalizar el tratamiento e iniciar el periodo de seguimiento, las pacientes esperen guías, recomendaciones y atención a las secuelas físicas y psicológicas que padecen. Esta necesidad es la que está promoviendo programas de transición desde el tratamiento al cuidado. En la presente revisión, señalam...

Background and aims: Minor nonspecific gastrointestinal subepithelial lesions (usually defined by the term 'tumour') are usually associated by the patients with a malignant illness and cancer. Our aim was to assess anxiety-distress and carcinophobia in patients referred to specialized monographic outpatient clinics for evaluation and treatment of...

Objectives. One of the issues that has increasingly become relevant to medical practice is the ability to communicate well with patients. Better communication results in better care for the patient, as well as greater satisfaction for the physician. For this reason, the aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a communication skills training...

Introducción: La atención psicosocial de las personas con enfermedad oncológica y la familia debe formar parte de todo modelo integral de atención que pretenda reducir el impacto vital del cáncer. Las intervenciones psicosociales han probado su eficacia en la ayuda a pacientes y familiares para afrontar las situaciones de alta complejidad psicosoci...

Objective To study the impact of the spontaneous use of Internet on breast cancer patients and on their relationship with health professionals.MethodsA mixed methodology was used. Two questionnaires were designed through three focus groups, and then administered to 186 patients and 59 professionals in order to assess: (1) patients’ use of Internet...

Objective Cancer is one of the biggest health challenges of our times, affecting all the personal areas of a patient. The interrelationships between these areas and the need for multidisciplinary care require the assessment of psychosocial complexity in cancer patients. The main aim of this study was to reach a consensus on the general definition o...

Objective This study assesses the effectiveness of face‐to‐face group positive psychotherapy for cancer survivors (PPC) compared to its online adaptation, online group positive psychotherapy for cancer survivors (OPPC), which is held via videoconference. A two‐arm, pragmatic RCT was conducted to examine the effects of both interventions on emotiona...

This randomized controlled trial compared the efficacy of cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) and positive psychotherapy in cancer (PPC) to reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and distress, and to promote post-traumatic growth (PTG) in cancer survivors. Participants were 140 adult women randomly allocated to CBSM (n = 73) or PPC...

Background: The therapeutic role of humor and hospital clowns has become a focus of interest in recent decades. Most of the research in the area has focused on children; here, we explore the influence of clown performances on adult cancer patients, their companions, and health-care staff. Methods: Ninety-nine cancer patients and 113 companions were...

Background and aim To assess emotional distress and complexity of patients referred to the Psychosocial Committee. Material and methods A pre-post single group study was performed in a sample of oncological patients. From the 144 patients referred to the committee, 27 were attended by psychosocial specialists. The patients’ levels of emotional dis...

Objectives Online resources are changing patient‐professional relationship and care delivery by empowering patients to engage in decisions in order to cope with their illness and modify behaviors. This review analyses the psychological factors associated with spontaneous and health professional–guided internet use in cancer patients. Methods Searc...

Resumen Antecedentes y objetivo Evaluar el malestar emocional y el nivel de complejidad de pacientes presentados al Comité de Atención Psicosocial. Materiales y métodos Estudio pre-post con un solo grupo en pacientes con cáncer. De los 144 pacientes, 27 fueron derivados por el comité a especialistas del área psicosocial, y sus niveles de malestar...

Post-traumatic stress and growth are common responses to adverse life events such as cancer. In this article, we establish how cancer becomes a “fertile land” for the emergence of stress and growth responses and analyze the main mechanisms involved. Stress-growth responses on adjusting to cancer is potentially determined by factors like the phase o...

Objective The main objective of this study is to establish emotional benefits of promoting and maintaining meaning in palliative care patients in the final weeks of life and to assess the benefits of including the compassion and self-compassion constructs in the Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy Model (MCP).Method Fifty-one cancer inpatients were rand...

Objective Changes perceived as both positive (e.g., post‐traumatic growth [PTG]) and negative (e.g. post‐traumatic stress symptoms [PTSS]) have been associated with intensive internet use among breast cancer survivors. In this multi‐center study, we analyzed the role of PTG and PTSS on the amount of time spent looking for online cancer information,...

RESUMEN La aparición de Internet y la generalización de su uso a partir de la década de los noventa han transformado la red en una de las principales fuentes de información sanitaria, especialmente en el ámbito oncológico. En la literatura científica y en nuestro actual contexto sociocultural se cuestiona si esta facilitación del acceso a informaci...

Objective: To describe major findings on posttraumatic growth (PTG) in cancer, by analyzing its various definitions, assessment tools, and examining its main psychological and clinical correlates. Methods A search in relevant databases (PsycINFO, Pubmed, ProQuest, Scopus and Web of Science) was performed using descriptors related to the positive r...

There is increasing evidence that positive life changes, such as posttraumatic growth (PTG), can result from the experience of coping with cancer. However, no interventions have been specifically designed to facilitate the development of PTG in cancer. In this article, we describe and assess the results of Positive Psychotherapy for Cancer (PPC) su...

Background/Objective There is increasing evidence that positive life changes, such as posttraumatic growth (PTG), can result from the experience of coping with cancer. However, no interventions have been specifically designed to facilitate the development of PTG in cancer. In this article, we describe and assess the results of Positive Psychotherap...

Over the last decades, Positive Psychology (PP) has promoted the scientific study of positive life changes in the aftermath of cancer. These have been integrated within negative life changes, based on the same human experience framework. Innovative interventions have been designed, prioritizing the pathways to the reduction of emotional distress an...

This integrative review aimed to analyze the research into positive psychological functioning after breast cancer, and to integrate the most relevant findings relating to sociodemographic, medical and psychosocial factors. Relevant outcomes were identified from electronic databases (Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, CINAHL, and W...

Serious and life-threatening illnesses like cancer produce stress symptoms in patients. However, the disease also has an impact on significant others in the patient’s life. This is now recognized in the literature, and alongside research on survivors’ growth from adversity, increasing attention is being paid to growth among significant others. This...

Being diagnosed with cancer and undergoing subsequent treatment can produce high levels of distress among patients. Several psychotherapeutic approaches have sought to help cancer patients manage these negative impacts. In addition, however, there is now increasing evidence regarding the collateral positive outcomes of the cancer experience, it bei...

Positive psychology is an emerging area of empirical study, not only in clinical, but also in health psychology. The present systematic review aims to synthesize the evidence about the positive psychology interventions utilized in breast cancer. Relevant studies were identified via Pubmed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, CINAHL, Wiley O...