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document
The efficacy of audiotapes in promoting psychological well-being in cancer patients : a randomised , controlled trial . Open or uncontrolled studies have suggested that providing cancer patients with audiotapes of their clinical interviews can improve information recall and reduce psychological distress . We tested these hypotheses in a 'clinician-blind ' , prospective , randomised controlled trial . A total of 117 patients newly referred to a medical oncology clinic who were to be given 'bad news ' had their consultations audiotaped . Blind to the clinician , patients were randomly allocated to receive a copy of the tape to play at home or not ( control group ) . At 6 months follow-up , tape group patients reported positive attitudes to the audiotape and were shown to recall significantly more information about their illness than did controls . Overall improvement in psychological distress at 1 and 6 months follow-up , as measured with the 30-item General Health Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was no different in the two groups . However , a second-order interaction suggested that poor-prognosis patients were disadvantaged specifically by access to the audiotape , with less improvement in psychological distress at 6 months follow-up than non-tape controls . Patient access to audiotapes of clinical interviews promotes factual retention but does not reliably reduce psychological distress and may be actively unhelpful in some subgroups of patients .
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Intervention_Educational
audiotapes
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Intervention_Educational
audiotapes
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Intervention_Educational
audiotaped
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Intervention_Psychological
copy of the tape to play at home or not ( control group )
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Intervention_Educational
audiotape
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Intervention_Educational
audiotapes
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Outcome_Mental
promoting psychological well-being
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Outcome_Mental
information recall
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Outcome_Mental
psychological distress
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Outcome_Mental
positive attitudes
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Outcome_Mental
recall significantly more information about their illness
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Outcome_Mental
psychological distress
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Outcome_Mental
30-item General Health Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
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Outcome_Mental
psychological distress
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Outcome_Mental
factual retention
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Outcome_Mental
psychological distress
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Participant_Condition
cancer
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Participant_Condition
cancer
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Participant_Sample-size
117