Health Trials

About this trial

Participants will complete 1 set of questionnaires about 2 weeks before beginning their Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Caregivers/MCP-C or standard Supportive Psychotherapy for Caregivers/SP-C sessions. These questionnaires will ask about participants' sense of meaning and purpose in life, spiritual well-being, depression and/or anxiety, and social support. Participants will then be assigned to receive either MCP-C or SP-C for 7 sessions. Participants will complete additional sets of questionnaires about 2 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after their last session of MCP-C or SP-C. It will take between 35 and 50 minutes to complete each set of questionnaires.

After participants complete the MCP-C or SP-C sessions and all 4 sets of questionnaires, their participation in this study will end. If participants decide not to complete all 7 sessions, they may still choose to complete the questionnaires.

Participants may remain in the study and continue to receive all 7 sessions of MCP-C or SP-C even if their loved one passes away.

Eligibility criteria

Qualifiers

Age 18 or over;

As per self-report, a current caregiver to a patient with Stage III or IV solid tumor cancer currently receiving medical care of any kind (e.g., curative, palliative);

Experiences distress as evidenced by a score of 4 or greater on the Distress Thermometer (DT) and an indication that this distress is associated with caregiving;

As per self-report, can read and understand English;

Disqualifiers

Participant does not have a reasonable understanding of the study activities by the judgment of the consenting professional;

Engagement in regular individual psychotherapeutic support that the participant is unable or unwilling to put on hold for the course of treatment.

Trial design

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Caregivers
  • Supportive Psychotherapy for Caregivers

Treatment groups

200 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groups

Locations

8
University of Miami (Data Collection AND Data Analysis)33136, MiamiFlorida, United States
Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge (Limited Protocol Activities)07920, Basking RidgeNew Jersey, United States
Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth (Limited protocol activities)07748, MiddletownNew Jersey, United States
Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen (Limited Protocol Activities)07645, MontvaleNew Jersey, United States

Sponsors and collaborators

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Lead sponsor

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Collaborator

University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov