Understanding meaning in life interventions in patients with advanced disease : a systematic review and realist synthesis

Article

GUERRERO-TORRELLES, Mariona | MONFORTE-ROYO, Cristina | ODRÍGUEZ-PRAT, Andrea | PORTA-SALES, Josep | BALAGUER, Albert

Background: Among patients with advanced disease, meaning in life is thought to enhance well-being, promote coping and improve the tolerance of physical symptoms. It may also act as a buffer against depression and hopelessness. As yet, there has been no synthesis of meaning in life interventions in which contextual factors, procedures and outcomes are described and evaluated. Aims: To identify meaning in life interventions implemented in patients with advanced disease and to describe their context, mechanisms and outcomes. Design:Systematic review according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and realist synthesis of meaning in life interventions using criteria from the Realist And Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards project.Data sources:The CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched. Results: A total of 12 articles were included in the systematic review, corresponding to nine different interventions. Five articles described randomized controlled trials, two were qualitative studies, two were commentaries or reflections, and there was one pre-post evaluation, one exploratory study and one description of a model of care. Analysis of context, mechanisms and outcomes configurations showed that a core component of all the interventions was the interpersonal encounter between patient and therapist, in which sources of meaning were explored and a sense of connectedness was re-established. Meaning in life interventions were associated with clinical benefits on measures of purpose-in-life, quality of life, spiritual well-being, self-efficacy, optimism, distress, hopelessness, anxiety, depression and wish to hasten death. Conclusion: This review provides an explanatory model of the contextual factors and mechanisms that may be involved in promoting meaning in life. These approaches could provide useful tools for relieving existential suffering at the end of life.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216316685235

Voir la revue «PALLIATIVE MEDICINE, 31»

Autres numéros de la revue «PALLIATIVE MEDICINE»

Consulter en ligne

Suggestions

Du même auteur

Understanding meaning in life interventions i...

Article indépendant | GUERRERO-TORRELLES, Mariona | PALLIATIVE MEDICINE | n°9 | vol.31

Background: Among patients with advanced disease, meaning in life is thought to enhance well-being, promote coping and improve the tolerance of physical symptoms. It may also act as a buffer against depression and hopelessness. As...

Understanding meaning in life interventions i...

Article indépendant | GUERRERO-TORRELLES, Mariona | PALLIATIVE MEDICINE | n°9 | vol.31

Background: Among patients with advanced disease, meaning in life is thought to enhance well-being, promote coping and improve the tolerance of physical symptoms. It may also act as a buffer against depression and hopelessness. As...

Meaning in life as a mediator between physica...

Article | GUERRERO-TORRELLES, Mariona | JOURNAL OF PAIN AND SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT | n°6 | vol.54

CONTEXT: Meaning in life (MiL) is a key factor for ensuring spiritual wellbeing and quality of life among patients with life-threatening illnesses. However, the role of MiL in relation to the wish to hasten death (WTHD) and its in...

De la même série

Improving family grief outcomes : a scoping r...

Article | HØEG, Beverley Lim | PALLIATIVE MEDICINE | n°3 | vol.38

BACKGROUND: Experiencing the illness and death of a child is a traumatic experience for the parents and the child's siblings. However, knowledge regarding effective grief interventions targeting the whole family is limited, includ...

Death education interventions for people with...

Article | WANG, Tong | PALLIATIVE MEDICINE | n°4 | vol.38

BACKGROUND: People with life-threatening diseases and their family caregivers confront psychosocial and spiritual issues caused by the persons' impending death. Reviews of death education interventions in the context of life-threa...

Research methods in palliative care

Article | DELIENS, Luc | PALLIATIVE MEDICINE | n°6 | vol.38

Research in palliative care is challenging and complex and it uses a range of research designs and research methods, derived from many different scientific disciplines: from medicine and nursing over health sciences, communication...

What are we planning, exactly? The perspectiv...

Article | BRUUN, Andrea | PALLIATIVE MEDICINE | n°6 | vol.38

BACKGROUND: Deaths of people with intellectual disabilities are often unplanned for and poorly managed. Little is known about how to involve people with intellectual disabilities in end-of-life care planning. AIM: To explore the p...

Face and content validity, acceptability, fea...

Article | NAMISANGO, Eve | PALLIATIVE MEDICINE | n°7 | vol.37

Background: The Children’s Palliative Care Outcome Scale (C-POS) is the first measure developed for children with life-limiting and -threatening illness. It is essential to determine whether the measure addresses what matter...

Chargement des enrichissements...