Early rehabilitation of cancer patients—An individual randomized stepped‐care stress‐management intervention

Objective To evaluate the effects of an individual stepped-care stress-management intervention for cancer patients on cancer-related stress reactions (intrusion/avoidance), and secondarily on psychological distress (anxiety/depression) and emotional reactivity (impatience/hostility). Methods Consecutively 291 cancer patients were included in a randomized controlled intervention study. Patients randomized to the intervention who did not report clinically significant stress levels (n = 72) after the first counseling session participated in only one counseling session and a follow-up (Step 1). The remaining patients (n = 66) received an additional three to eight sessions, depending on individu…