Long-term effects of educational and peer discussion group interventions on adjustment to breast cancer

The authors report a 3-year follow-up of the effects of 8-week support grou p interventions on the quality of life of women with early stage breast can cer. Shortly after diagnosis, women were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 condit ions: control, education, peer discussion, and education plus peer discussi on. The education group intervention focused on providing information to en hance control over the illness experience, whereas the peer discussion grou p intervention focused on providing emotional support through the expressio n of feelings. Consistent with the results that emerged 6 months after the interventions (V. S. Helgeson, S. Cohen, R. Schulz, & J. Yasko, 1999), the authors found that the benefits of the education intervention were maintain ed over a 3-year period (N = 252), although effects dissipated with time. T he authors continued to find no benefits of the peer discussion interventio n, either alone or in combination with education.