Coping with primary brain tumors together: a scoping review of dyadic psychosocial interventions

Gliomas are associated with poor prognosis and place significant emotional, psychological, and practical burdens on patients and their care-partners. Dyadic interventions hold promise for mental health, coping, and quality of life. This scoping review synthesizes the current landscape of dyadic interventions in glioma and neuro-oncology care, examining intervention characteristics, theoretical foundations, and psychosocial outcomes, while identifying gaps to guide future research and clinical practice.

A systematic search (2013-2024) of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, CINAHL, and PsycINFO was conducted for English-language studies. Using the PICOS framework, we included studies involving individuals with brain tumors and their romantic/intimate partners. Eligible studies reported psychosocial, health-related, feasibility, acceptability, or efficacy outcomes for both members of the dyad. Studies were excluded if partners comprised less than 20% of the caregiver sample.

Eleven publications met the inclusion criteria. Interventions included yoga, meditation, psychoeducational and CBT models, dignity therapy, EMDR, and communication coaching. Programs ranged from in-person to online, and from single sessions to multi-week. Across studies, feasibility and acceptability were confirmed, with observed benefits in emotional distress, caregiver mastery, relational connection, and existential well-being. However, many were early-phase and methodologically heterogeneous, with inconsistent reporting of participants' characteristics, outcome measures and evaluation of mechanisms of change.

Although interest in the application of dyadic approaches to glioma care is increasing, the evidence base remains limited and fragmented. Advancing this field will require more rigorous, theory-driven interventions, including standardized outcome measures and perspectives from patients, partners, and providers to ensure relevance, feasibility, and clinical applicability.