Dignity Therapy (DT) helps reframe and give meaning to the illness process of the terminally ill individual. This study aims to evaluate the effect of DT on meaning in life scores and, additionally, to assess how much DT can alleviate physical and emotional symptoms in cancer patients undergoing palliative care.

This was a before-and-after clinical trial, involving the recruitment of 30 patients hospitalized in a palliative care unit, who filled out the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) and the Meaning in Life Scale (MiLS) both before and after the implementation of DT.

Of the 40 patients invited to participate in the study, DT was completed by 30 (75%) participants: 22 (73%) women and 8 (27%) men. Eighteen (60%) patients died during hospitalization, while 12 (40%) were discharged. When analyzing the factors correlated with the MiLS scores, a positive association was identified between the emotional and physical domains of the ESAS, and a negative association with the total ESAS score, spiritual ESAS score, male gender, higher educational level, and a cancer diagnosis duration (>6 years).

DT contributed to clinically relevant improvement, albeit not statistically significant, observed in emotional and spiritual well-being, as well as in the meaning of life. This underscores the importance of considering DT for palliative care patients nearing death.

Meaninglessness is one of the most common psychological problems in cancer patients, which can lead to anxiety, depression and psychological distress, and diminished quality of life. Recent evidence indicates that meaning-centered group psychotherapy (MCGP) effectively enhances the meaning in life among cancer patients. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of MCGP on the meaning in life, post-traumatic growth, psychological distress, and fear of recurrence among Chinese cancer patients with a favorable prognosis.

Sixty-six cancer patients were randomly assigned to either the MCGP group (n = 33) or the control group (n = 33). Participants in the MCGP group underwent a 4-week, 8-session MCGP, while those in the control group received usual care. Meaning in life, post-traumatic growth, psychological distress, and fear of recurrence were assessed at both baseline and postintervention to evaluate the impact of the intervention. The intervention outcomes were analyzed using paired t-tests or analysis of covariance, as appropriate.

Patients in the MCGP group demonstrated significant improvements in meaning in life, post-traumatic growth, and fear of recurrence from baseline to postintervention. In comparison to the control group, the MCGP group displayed positive effects on meaning in life and post-traumatic growth following the intervention. However, no significant effects were observed in terms of psychological distress and fear of recurrence.

Our research offers evidence supporting the effectiveness of MCGP in enhancing meaning in life and post-traumatic growth among Chinese cancer patients with a favorable prognosis.

Positive psychiatry is the science and practice of psychiatry seeking to promote overall well-being and understand the “positive” aspects of the patient’s life, such as resilience, social connections, and meaning and values in life. While positive psychiatry research has recently blossomed, the field lacks practical ways to integrate these overarching principles into clinical practice. Life review interventions are commonly used in palliative care, spiritual care, and geriatrics, and involve a healthcare team member interviewing a patient about their life.

Our objective is to describe the implementation of a positive psychiatry-informed life story review initiative into medical education, with the goal of creating a structure for medical trainees to see the larger context of patients’ health, understand how past experiences influence current values, and improve patients’ overall well-being.

First- and third-year students at Alpert Medical School of Brown University are required to participate in at least one strengths-based life review with a patient in the community or inpatient setting, transcribe the story, and integrate the story into the electronic health record.

Preliminary results demonstrate high acceptability and perceived development of patient-centered competencies, such as understanding patients as more complete human beings. While this is a low cost and sustainable intervention, barriers include buy-in from medical educators, hospital administrators, and trainees.

To our knowledge, this is one of the first positive psychiatry-informed interventions to be implemented into the required medical curricula. Life story reviews may allow providers to understand the “positive” aspects of patients’ lives and understand their patients better as people.

Previous studies have shown that psychological stress and mental health problems increase the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, such as heart attack or stroke. Furthermore, after CVD events, the majority of patients report large stress. However, psychological treatments have only modest effects in CVD patients. Therefore, it has been argued that new conceptual models are needed to understand the aetiology of stress and mental health problems in CVD patients. Therefore, this study included a systematic literature review and a conceptual model on the role of meaning in life for psychological stress, mental health, and CVD risks.

A systematic literature review was conducted on relationships between CVD and meaning in life. PRISMA/MOOSE review guidelines were followed. These findings were used to build a conceptual model.

The literature review included 113 studies on meaning and CVD. The included studies described meaning as a predictor of cardiovascular risks and health, meaning-centered needs of patients in conversations with medical staff, meaning-centered changes after CVD events, meaning-centered coping with CVD, meaning as motivator of CVD-related lifestyle changes, and meaning as an element in psychological treatments of CVD patients. In sum, the literature showed that a central clinical concern for patients is their question how to live a meaningful life despite CVD. Meaning-centered concerns seem to lead to lower motivation to make lifestyle changes, more psychological stress, lower quality-of-life, worse physical well-being, and increased CVD risk. The ability to live a meaningful life after CVD events is related with lower stress, better mental health, and several biomarkers.

An evidence-based conceptual framework was developed for the relationship between meaning and CVD. It may be hypothesized CVD patients may benefit from psychological therapies focused on meaning.

Feelings of purpose and meaning in life are protective against consequential cognitive outcomes, including reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Purpose and meaning are likely to also be associated with cognitive functions on the pathway to dementia. The objective of the current research was to test whether both purpose in life and meaning in life are associated with higher verbal fluency and better episodic memory and whether these associations varied by sociodemographic characteristics or economic characteristics of the country.

Prospective meta-analysis of cross-sectional associations based on individual participant data.

Established cohort studies with measures of either purpose in life or meaning in life and verbal fluency and episodic memory.

Across the cohorts, there were over 140,000 participants from 32 countries from North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East.

The meta-analysis indicated that purpose and meaning were associated with better performance on both the verbal fluency (meta-analytic partial r = .098, 95% confidence interval [CI] = .080, .116, p < .001) and episodic memory (r = .117, 95% CI = .100, .135, p < .001) task and that these associations were similar across measures of purpose in life and meaning in life. There was modest evidence that these associations were slightly stronger in relatively lower-income countries, and there was less consistent evidence that they varied by age, gender, or education.

These findings indicate a robust association between purpose/meaning and both verbal fluency and episodic memory across demographic groups and cultural context. Purpose/meaning may be a useful target of intervention for healthier cognitive aging.

The objectives of this study were to obtain patient evaluations of the content, structure, and delivery modality of Meaning-Centered Pain Coping Skills Training (MCPC), a novel psychosocial intervention for patients with advanced cancer and pain. MCPC aims to help patients connect with valued sources of meaning in their lives (e.g., family relationships), while providing training in evidence-based cognitive and behavioral skills (e.g., guided imagery) to reduce pain.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 patients with stage IV solid tumor cancers and persistent pain. Transcripts were analyzed using methods from applied thematic analysis.

When evaluating MCPC's educational information and skills training descriptions, participants described ways in which this content resonated with their experience. Many coped with their pain and poor prognosis by relying on frameworks that provided them with a sense of meaning, often involving their personally held religious or spiritual beliefs. They also expressed a need for learning ways to cope with pain in addition to taking medication. A few participants offered helpful suggestions for refining MCPC's content, such as addressing common co-occurring symptoms of sleep disturbance and fatigue. Concerning MCPC's structure and delivery modality, most participants preferred that sessions include their family caregiver and described remote delivery (i.e., telephone or videoconference) as being more feasible than attending in-person sessions.

Participants were interested in an intervention that concurrently focuses on learning pain coping skills and enhancing a sense of meaning. Using remote delivery modalities may reduce access barriers (e.g., travel) that would otherwise prevent many patients from utilizing psychosocial services.

To examine whether previously established associations between experiences of meaning in life on the one hand and life satisfaction and depressive symptoms on the other hand are transferable to a population of older residential care residents with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Cross-sectional study using questionnaires administered in a structured interview format.

Nine residential care settings in Flanders, Belgium.

Convenience sample of 138 older adults (+65) living in residential care with a diagnosis of AD.

Meaning in life was measured using the Presence of Meaning (PoM) subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire-Short Form, life satisfaction was measured using the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), depressive symptoms were measured using a five-item short form of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and general cognitive status was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

Controlling for demographic variables (age, sex, and marital status) and cognitive status, meaning in life scores were positively predictive of life satisfaction scores and negatively predictive of depressive symptoms. Post-hoc analyses suggested a possible interaction between meaning in life and cognitive status in predicting both outcomes of psychological functioning (GDS and SWLS).

The presence of meaning in life is related to important well-being outcomes for older adults with AD living in residential care. More awareness for the importance of existential themes and interventions fostering meaning might be warranted for this population.