Applying psychiatric techniques to patients with cancer

A patient with cancer frequently experiences significant stress in adjusting to his disease. The authors feel that cancer patients who are receiving physical care in a general hospital may benefit from psychiatric techniques used regularly by mental health professionals. They describe weekly group meetings in which newly diagnosed cancer patients talk with the hospital staff, consultants from a psychiatric institute, and more experienced cancer patients about problems in adjustment, misconceptions about cancer, reactions of family and friends, and problems in relating to their physician. To date approximately 2000 patients have attended the meetings. In most cases their anxiety has decreased as they talk with other cancer patients who have learned to live with their disease, and as they see alternative methods for dealing with their problems.