Time to Let Go of the Illusion That Psychotherapy Extends the Survival of Cancer Patients: Reply to Kraemer, Kuchler, and Spiegel (2009)

James C. Coyne, Brett D. Thombs, Michael Stefanek, Steven C. Palmer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The authors recently reviewed evidence related to the notion that psychotherapy extends survival in cancer patients (J. C. Coyne, M. Stefanek, & S. C. Palmer, 2007). The authors found that no study to date, including several designed and powered to test this hypothesis, can be reasonably interpreted as evidence that cancer patients live longer as a result of receiving psychotherapy. The authors concluded that the evidence against psychotherapy as a life-prolonging intervention in cancer is sufficiently robust to discontinue funding studies in this area. H. C. Kraemer, T. Kuchler, and D. Spiegel (2009) critiqued the authors' review. The authors respond directly to numerous misrepresentations made by Kraemer et al. More importantly, the authors provide readers with an accurate overview of the main issues being debated and the reasons for their conclusions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)179-182
Number of pages4
JournalPsychological Bulletin
Volume135
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • cancer
  • mortality
  • psychotherapy
  • survival

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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