Mindfulness on Symptom Control and Quality of Life in Patients in Palliative Care: A Systematic Review.
Anastasiya Stadnyk, Hugo Jorge Casimiro, Paulo Reis-Pina
PMID 37468131WHAT IT FOUND
In palliative patients, mindfulness sometimes eased suffering, anxiety, depression and spiritual well-being, but pain, fatigue and stress results were inconsistent.
Eight small trials cannot show a dependable effect.
Key findings
01The review included eight studies involving 609 palliative care patients and 75 spousal caregivers.
02In an included trial, the mindfulness group had reduced overall suffering and improved spiritual well-being versus control.
03In an included trial, the mindfulness group improved depressive symptoms, fatigue and insomnia versus control at post-intervention and follow-up.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 8 studies were included, and the review could not combine them statistically because the studies were too few and too heterogeneous. The included trials differed in mindfulness content, duration, population, comparator and outcomes, so a confident conclusion about exact benefits is difficult. Overall risk of bias was low to moderate, but some trials did not report how the random allocation was concealed, and subjective symptoms were hard to measure objectively. Only 1 trial was blinded, and lack of blinding could affect subjective reporting. Sample sizes were small. The search covered only publications from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2022, and only PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane were searched.
Declared interests
The authors declared potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of the article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof mindfulness reliably controls pain or fatigue. The review included only eight small heterogeneous trials, and several symptoms showed no difference or inconsistent results.