Women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer typically undergo an aggressive surgical and chemotherapy region which has an uncertain outcome. Mortality rates for this disease are high, as the chemotherapy regimen which has an uncertain outcome. Mortality rates for this disease are high, as are the rates for recurrence. Women undergoing treatment for this disease are subject to a large number of stresses. Despite the significant threat to life and bodily integrity these patients may endure, relatively few empirical studies have determined whether psychological interventions an improve ovarian cancer patients' emotional and social functioning. The goal of this research is to test two psychological interventions designed to bolster quality of life during and after treatment for ovarian cancer. The proposed study is a controlled clinical trial with three experimental conditions: non-directive supportive therapy, coping and communication skills therapy, and a standard care control group. Three hundred fifty eight women, recently diagnosed with Stage I to III ovarian cancer, will be randomly assigned to either a seven session coping and communication skill intervention, a seven session non-directive supportive therapy condition, or standard psychosocial care. The coping and communication skills intervention will assist patients in using adaptive cognitive processing/coping (emotional approach, positive reappraisal and growth, finding meaning) and learning communication skills to obtain more support from others. The non-directive supportive therapy intervention will focus on allowing the patient to ventilate and work through emotions she is experiencing. The intervention methods are based on cognitive processing theories of traumatic events and our prior work. We predict that both interventions will result in less distress in the short-term, the oping and communication skills intervention will result in more benefit in the long-term, because the patients are taught skills to enhance their cognitive and social processing of cancer within their existing social network. Patients will be assessed using questionnaire methods pre- and post-intervention, and at 9-month post-intervention follow-up.
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