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Patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer often experience high symptom burden, which is associated with heightened distress in both patients and their family caregivers. Few interventions have been tested to jointly address patient and caregiver symptoms in advanced gastrointestinal cancer. In a randomized pilot trial, telephone-based, dyadic acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) was found to be feasible in this population. The present secondary analyses examined the impact of this intervention on patient and caregiver physical and psychological symptoms. Patients and caregivers (N = 40 dyads) were recruited from clinics in Indianapolis, Indiana and randomized to either six weeks of telephone-based ACT or education/support, an attention control condition. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and at 2 weeks and 3 months post-intervention. Study group differences in outcomes were not statistically significant. However, when examining within-group change, only ACT patients experienced moderate reductions in pain severity and interference at 2 weeks post-intervention (effect size [ES]=-0.47; -0.51) as well as moderate reductions in depressive symptoms at 2 weeks (ES=-0.42) and 3 months (ES=-0.41) post-intervention. ACT caregivers experienced moderate reductions in sleep disturbance (ES=-0.56; -0.49) and cognitive concerns (ES=-0.61; -0.85) across follow-ups. Additionally, caregivers in both conditions experienced moderate reductions in fatigue (ES=-0.38 to -0.70) and anxiety (ES=-0.40 to -0.49) across follow-ups. Findings suggest that ACT may improve certain symptoms in dyads coping with advanced gastrointestinal cancer and warrant replication in a larger trial.

This study investigated social predictors of sunscreen and self-tanning product use among 164 undergraduates. Immediate family members' sunscreen use predicted participants' facial sunscreen use while sunbathing but not their sunscreen use on other areas of the body. In addition, familial support of a tanned appearance was inversely associated with self-tanning product use, whereas romantic partners' support of a tanned appearance was positively associated with this behavior. The results of this study suggest that it may be important to include socially significant others in interventions for reducing the risk of skin cancer in college students. Key Words: health behaviors, skin cancer, sunscreen, tanning, Over 1 million cases of skin cancer occur annually, and the incidence of melanoma, the most deadly form of the disease, continues to increase at a rate of approximately 3% [...]

Levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and their relationships to demographic and psychosocial variables and maternal medical history were examined among 31 women with maternal histories of breast cancer. The results indicate that 19.4% of these women were likely to merit a PTSD diagnosis related to maternal breast cancer, particularly those who reported greater negative affect. In addition, PTSD symptom severity was positively associated with the mother's cancer stage at diagnosis and was inversely associated with participant age. These results suggest that maternal breast cancer is an emotionally traumatic event for many women and point to the potential influence of psychological factors and stressor characteristics on daughters' PTSD responses.