Effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on treatment compliance and immune function in children with cancer receiving chemotherapy

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on treatment compliance and immune function in children with cancer receiving chemotherapy，and to provide a basis for psychological nursing for children with cancer. Methods：Convenience sampling was used to select 50 children with cancer who met related criteria，and after being matched for type of cancer，stage，and age，they were divided into treatment group and control group according to their preference，with 25 patients in each group. The patients in the control group were given routine psychological nursing，and those in the treatment group were given cognitive behavioral therapy；the course of treatment was 5 weeks for both groups. Before and after intervention，Frankl Compliance Scale（FCS），Houpt Behavior Scale（HBS），and peripheral blood lymphocyte content（PBLC） were used to evaluate treatment compliance and immune function，and the results were analyzed and compared between the two groups. Results：After intervention，compared with the control group，the treatment group had significantly higher treatment compliance（3.20±0.40 vs. 2.72±0.61，t=3.256，P=0.002） and content of natural killer cells（20.36±10.76 vs. 16.68±8.44，t=2.356，P=0.024）. The treatment group had a significant increase in T lymphocytes after intervention（72.26±11.34 vs. 76.33±11.07，t=2.460，P=0.021），but in the control group，there were no significant changes in treat－ment compliance and T lymphocytes after intervention（all P>0.05）. Conclusion：In children with cancer，cognitive behavioral therapy can enhance treatment compliance by correcting their distorted understanding of cancer events and thus plays an important role in improving immunoregulation capability and prognosis.