”Dignity therapy" is a “novel psychotherapeutic approach” that gives patients with a 6-month life expectancy “an opportunity to reflect on things that matter most to them or that they would most want remembered.” In these days of medical experts such as Sarah Palin equating reimbursed end-of-life discussions to death panels killing granny, an outcomes evaluation of any such intervention is essential. Harvey Max Chochinov, of the University of Manitoba and colleagues in the U.S. and Australia did just that. Their impetus: “… although much progress has been made in our ability to achieve physical comfort for patients who are dying, few novel interventions have been designed to address the psychosocial, existential, and spiritual dimensions of end-of-life care.”
In an admittedly difficult-to-design study, the investigators randomized 326 patients (most of whom had cancer) to one of three interventions: dignity psychotherapy, palliative care, and client-centered care (which focuses on the “here and now” as opposed to the past and future perusal of dignity therapy). Their article in Lancet Oncology provides 9 questions that a trained dignity therapist might pose to a patient. Responses are recorded and typed up, then presented to the patient as a “generativity document.” Various before-and-after rating scales as well as patient comments revealed improvement in quality of life and family relationships with dignity therapy, although general distress was not significantly alleviated with any intervention.
Oddly, for Dr. Chochinov is an award-winning palliative care expert, the report mentions “hospice” only as a possible physical setting! In fact, hospice volunteers have been providing dignity therapy for decades.
The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers graduate online masters in bioethics programs. For more information on the AMBI master of bioethics online program, please visit the AMBI site.
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