Psychotherapy with Cancer Patients

Cancer is associated with significant psychosocial morbidity. Although psychodynamic psychotherapy is a valuable intervention for some cancer patients, this modality has been underutilized because psychotherapy with medically ill patients has been linked historically to work with patients who have psychosomatic illnesses. Psychotherapy with patients who have cancer has unique features, such as the prominence of illness-related issues during the initial phase of treatment, the mixture of supportive and interpretive therapy, focused goals, and special issues pertaining to the transference/countertransference field. Understanding of those special issues will improve psychiatrists’ ability to use long-term psychotherapy as an effective psychosocial intervention for patients with cancer.