Abstract
Background: Many breast cancer survivors experience fatigue, mood, and sleep disturbances. Purpose: This study aims to compare a meditative movement practice, Qigong/Tai Chi Easy (QG/TCE) with sham Qigong (SQG), testing effects of meditation/breath aspects of QG/TCE on breast cancer survivors’ persistent fatigue and other symptoms. Methods: This double-blind, randomized controlled trial tested 12 weeks of QG/TCE versus SQG on fatigue, depression, and sleep among 87 postmenopausal, fatigued breast cancer survivors, stages 0–III, age 40–75. Results: Fatigue decreased significantly in the QG/TCE group compared to control at post-intervention (p = 0.005) and 3 months follow-up (p = 0.024), but not depression and sleep quality. Improvement occurred over time for both interventions in depression and sleep quality (all p < 0.05). Conclusions: QG/TCE showed significant improvement over time compared to SQG for fatigue, but not depression or sleep. Both QG/TCE and SQG showed improvement for two prevalent symptoms among breast cancer survivors, depression and sleep dysfunction.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 165-176 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Annals of Behavioral Medicine |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2015 |
Keywords
- Breast neoplasm
- Fatigue
- Qigong
- Survivor symptoms
- Tai Chi
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychology(all)
- Psychiatry and Mental health