To our knowledge, there had been no evidence for the efficacy of psychosocial intervention among Korean breast cancer patients. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a psychosocial group intervention in reducing psychologic distress and enhancing coping in this population.

The patient selection criteria were age younger than 70 years, undergoing any postoperative adjuvant therapy, and surgery undergone within the previous 3~6 months as of the start of the study. There were 30 patients that met this criteria. There was no wait-list control group because none of the eligible patients desired to stay in the wait-list control group. Therefore a one group pretest-postlest design was used. We conducted an 8-week, structured, psychosocial group intervention that used psychoeducational strategies combining education and psychological support. Subjects were assessed for psychological distress and coping by administering the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Ways of Coping Checklist-Revised (WCCL-R) at the baseline and at 8 weeks.

Thirty patients participated and the results of 20 of these patients were used for the analysis as appropriate. The postlest results showed significantly lower scores than the pretest results for depression on the BDI (p<0.001), and for avoidance (p<0.001) and wishful thinking (p<0.001) on the WCCL-R. Additionally, the total score for coping on the WCCL-R showed a significant difference after the intervention (p=0.051).

Despite some limitations, the results of this study suggest that short-term pshchosocial group intervention produces a significant improvement in the quality of life of patients with primary breast carcinoma in terms of managing depression and coping.