Volume 32, Issue 1 (3-2025)
RJMS 2025, 32(1): 1-19 |
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Ethics code: IR.ATU.REC.1402.040
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tamaddon S H, Eskandari H, Borjali A, Sohrabi Asmarod F, kaveh V. Effectiveness of Psychological Interventions in Couples with Cancer: A Systematic Review. RJMS 2025; 32 (1) :1-19
URL: http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-9167-en.html
URL: http://rjms.iums.ac.ir/article-1-9167-en.html
Seyedeh Hasti Tamaddon *1 
, Hossein Eskandari2 , Ahmad Borjali3 , Faramarz Sohrabi Asmarod3 , Vahid Kaveh4
, Hossein Eskandari2 , Ahmad Borjali3 , Faramarz Sohrabi Asmarod3 , Vahid Kaveh4
1- Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran , hasti.tamaddon@gmail.com
2- Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran, sknd@atu.ac.ir
3- Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran
4- Professor, Department of Oncology and Hematology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Kaveh.v@iums.ac.ir
2- Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran, sknd@atu.ac.ir
3- Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran
4- Professor, Department of Oncology and Hematology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Kaveh.v@iums.ac.ir
Abstract: (377 Views)
Background & Aims: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world and causes illness and deterioration of the mental health of patients and their caregivers. In addition to causing psychological and physical side effects such as pain and anxiety, cancer treatment can have a passive impact on the entire family, especially the spouse. In fact, spouses of cancer patients experience severe psychological distress during treatment. In addition, spouse anxiety and depression increase due to the high level of daily care for the patient. Experts emphasize comprehensive care approaches due to the impact of cancer on patients' physical and mental health. It has been emphasized that psychotherapy interventions not only reduce emotional distress, but also improve functional outcomes and enable patients to better manage the challenges of their illness. A systematic review could provide more accurate and effective information on the effectiveness of psychological interventions in couples with cancer.
Methods: The method of the present study was a systematic review. In this study, articles published from 2000 to December 30, 2025 were searched in databases such as the Humanities Portal, the Jihad Daneshgahi Scientific Information Center, the Normags Specialized Journals Database, the Iranian Journals Database, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Springer. Also, the Google Scholar search engine was searched to access gray literature using combined Persian and English keywords. We acknowledge that Google Scholar is not a selective database. It is a tool for accessing resources in the gray literature. However, it was used as a safety net to identify any peer-reviewed articles or publications in print that may not have been captured by the initial database search due to indexing delays.
Results: The results showed that various psychological interventions, including emotion-focused couple therapy, mindfulness-based couple therapy, compassion-focused couple therapy, group training based on acceptance and commitment therapy, integrative couple therapy, couple-based coping intervention, couple-based communication intervention, couple-based family resilience intervention with a coping approach, self-directed coping skills intervention, couple-based self-efficacy intervention, training based on rational-emotional-behavioral therapy, hug me tight intervention, and couple-based group intervention, were carried out. Also, by reviewing the studies, it was determined that the most variables that psychological interventions based on couples with cancer were carried out. It was related to the variables of marital intimacy, marital satisfaction, relational aggression, psychological distress, mental health, quality of life and communication patterns, family functioning and quality of marital life, marital commitment and interpersonal emotion regulation, caregiving pressure, components of marital relationship quality, marital stress, sense of coherence, health outcomes (mental health and quality of life), marital and sexual problems (positive and negative affect, intimacy, partner responsiveness and expression of attachment-based emotional needs), anxiety, depression, couple adjustment, assessment of illness or caregiving, couple self-efficacy and coping skills, social isolation, family resilience, hope, sense of family cohesion, spiritual health, perceived social support and quality of couple communication, self-compassion, perception of illness, anxiety and depression, social support, social isolation and coping styles, chronic fatigue, couple coping level, individual and relational functioning. In addition, 20 studies (95%) demonstrated positive and significant effectiveness of various psychological interventions for couples with cancer. The review indicated that various interventions based on couples with cancer have been implemented; However, most of the interventions that were conducted were related to emotion-focused couple therapy, mindfulness-based couple therapy, and compassion-based couple therapy. Limited studies were conducted on integrative couple therapy, couple-based coping intervention, couple-based communication intervention, couple-based family resilience intervention with a coping approach, couple-based self-efficacy intervention, training based on rational-emotional-behavioral therapy, Hug Me Tight intervention, and couple-based group intervention. However, the common denominator of all couple-based interventions was recognizing emotions, mindfulness and breathing exercises, forgiving oneself and others, the ability to face problems and crises caused by cancer, trying to re-establish communication between couples, trying to feel responsible for solving problems and carrying out life's tasks, and trying to recognize and solve inappropriate communication patterns.
Conclusion: A systematic review showed that individual interventions (the spouse of the person with cancer) are more effective than joint interventions (the person with cancer and the spouse simultaneously), although most studies have been conducted in groups. Considering the review of the research literature, it can be concluded that future studies should tailor psychological interventions to the unique needs of the participants (38). In addition, it was found that the more sessions of psychological interventions, such as six sessions or more, the greater the effectiveness (60). Also, since the psychological problems of couples with cancer are not the same, each couple should be assessed individually and the intervention program should be implemented according to their psychological conditions; in other words, all couples should not receive the same intervention at the same time, but couples should receive the intervention individually; Although, whether individual or group interventions are effective on couples with cancer, the effect of the intervention will be greater due to tailoring it to the psychological needs of each couple (35).
On the other hand, it was found that most studies have addressed the effectiveness of interventions on couples with breast cancer, such as studies (41-51, and limited studies, including studies (52, 53, 22, 55-57, 59-61), have been conducted on men with cancer and their spouses. It is suggested that in future studies, in addition to addressing the effectiveness of various types of interventions on couples with breast cancer, more research should be devoted to the effectiveness of interventions on men with cancer, including prostate cancer, and their spouses. Also, most studies on couples with cancer have been conducted in the age group over 60 years (middle-aged and elderly people), and a smaller part of the studies have been devoted to younger men and women, which is suggested, considering that the psychological characteristics of young, middle-aged and elderly people are separated; therefore, researchers should also dedicate a group of psychological interventions for young people. Among the limitations of the present systematic review study, review articles on the effectiveness of psychological interventions in couples with cancer, conference papers related to the Civica database, and theses can be mentioned, which were excluded from the study due to the exclusion criteria. The high dispersion of articles on the effectiveness of psychological interventions in couples with cancer that did not meet the inclusion criteria was indicated. Also, the unavailability of the full text of some articles and the blocking of some scientific databases prevented researchers from accessing these articles. Therefore, in systematic reviews, it rarely happens that all the studies found have all the necessary indicators for reporting, which could be a major limitation of the present study.
Methods: The method of the present study was a systematic review. In this study, articles published from 2000 to December 30, 2025 were searched in databases such as the Humanities Portal, the Jihad Daneshgahi Scientific Information Center, the Normags Specialized Journals Database, the Iranian Journals Database, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Springer. Also, the Google Scholar search engine was searched to access gray literature using combined Persian and English keywords. We acknowledge that Google Scholar is not a selective database. It is a tool for accessing resources in the gray literature. However, it was used as a safety net to identify any peer-reviewed articles or publications in print that may not have been captured by the initial database search due to indexing delays.
Results: The results showed that various psychological interventions, including emotion-focused couple therapy, mindfulness-based couple therapy, compassion-focused couple therapy, group training based on acceptance and commitment therapy, integrative couple therapy, couple-based coping intervention, couple-based communication intervention, couple-based family resilience intervention with a coping approach, self-directed coping skills intervention, couple-based self-efficacy intervention, training based on rational-emotional-behavioral therapy, hug me tight intervention, and couple-based group intervention, were carried out. Also, by reviewing the studies, it was determined that the most variables that psychological interventions based on couples with cancer were carried out. It was related to the variables of marital intimacy, marital satisfaction, relational aggression, psychological distress, mental health, quality of life and communication patterns, family functioning and quality of marital life, marital commitment and interpersonal emotion regulation, caregiving pressure, components of marital relationship quality, marital stress, sense of coherence, health outcomes (mental health and quality of life), marital and sexual problems (positive and negative affect, intimacy, partner responsiveness and expression of attachment-based emotional needs), anxiety, depression, couple adjustment, assessment of illness or caregiving, couple self-efficacy and coping skills, social isolation, family resilience, hope, sense of family cohesion, spiritual health, perceived social support and quality of couple communication, self-compassion, perception of illness, anxiety and depression, social support, social isolation and coping styles, chronic fatigue, couple coping level, individual and relational functioning. In addition, 20 studies (95%) demonstrated positive and significant effectiveness of various psychological interventions for couples with cancer. The review indicated that various interventions based on couples with cancer have been implemented; However, most of the interventions that were conducted were related to emotion-focused couple therapy, mindfulness-based couple therapy, and compassion-based couple therapy. Limited studies were conducted on integrative couple therapy, couple-based coping intervention, couple-based communication intervention, couple-based family resilience intervention with a coping approach, couple-based self-efficacy intervention, training based on rational-emotional-behavioral therapy, Hug Me Tight intervention, and couple-based group intervention. However, the common denominator of all couple-based interventions was recognizing emotions, mindfulness and breathing exercises, forgiving oneself and others, the ability to face problems and crises caused by cancer, trying to re-establish communication between couples, trying to feel responsible for solving problems and carrying out life's tasks, and trying to recognize and solve inappropriate communication patterns.
Conclusion: A systematic review showed that individual interventions (the spouse of the person with cancer) are more effective than joint interventions (the person with cancer and the spouse simultaneously), although most studies have been conducted in groups. Considering the review of the research literature, it can be concluded that future studies should tailor psychological interventions to the unique needs of the participants (38). In addition, it was found that the more sessions of psychological interventions, such as six sessions or more, the greater the effectiveness (60). Also, since the psychological problems of couples with cancer are not the same, each couple should be assessed individually and the intervention program should be implemented according to their psychological conditions; in other words, all couples should not receive the same intervention at the same time, but couples should receive the intervention individually; Although, whether individual or group interventions are effective on couples with cancer, the effect of the intervention will be greater due to tailoring it to the psychological needs of each couple (35).
On the other hand, it was found that most studies have addressed the effectiveness of interventions on couples with breast cancer, such as studies (41-51, and limited studies, including studies (52, 53, 22, 55-57, 59-61), have been conducted on men with cancer and their spouses. It is suggested that in future studies, in addition to addressing the effectiveness of various types of interventions on couples with breast cancer, more research should be devoted to the effectiveness of interventions on men with cancer, including prostate cancer, and their spouses. Also, most studies on couples with cancer have been conducted in the age group over 60 years (middle-aged and elderly people), and a smaller part of the studies have been devoted to younger men and women, which is suggested, considering that the psychological characteristics of young, middle-aged and elderly people are separated; therefore, researchers should also dedicate a group of psychological interventions for young people. Among the limitations of the present systematic review study, review articles on the effectiveness of psychological interventions in couples with cancer, conference papers related to the Civica database, and theses can be mentioned, which were excluded from the study due to the exclusion criteria. The high dispersion of articles on the effectiveness of psychological interventions in couples with cancer that did not meet the inclusion criteria was indicated. Also, the unavailability of the full text of some articles and the blocking of some scientific databases prevented researchers from accessing these articles. Therefore, in systematic reviews, it rarely happens that all the studies found have all the necessary indicators for reporting, which could be a major limitation of the present study.
Type of Study: review article |
Subject:
Pathology
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