The effectiveness of reminiscence therapy on anxiety, depression, and quality of life in adult cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To investigate the effectiveness of reminiscence therapy on anxiety, depression, and quality of life in adult cancer patients.

This study is a systematic review and meta-analysis, including 16 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs), encompassing a total of 1948 participants. The sample sizes of the included studies ranged from 32 to 210, with results from 1852 participants being evaluated. Potential studies up to July 31, 2023, were searched across seven electronic literature databases, reference lists of similar reviews, gray literature, and the Clinical Trials Registry. Studies were required to meet the PICOS inclusion criteria. Two independent investigators assessed the risk of bias in the included studies using the Cochrane Collaboration Tool. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4 when data were available. This review is registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) with the registration number CRD42024524176 (28/03/2024).

This meta-analysis included 16 articles; nine studies found that reminiscence therapy significantly reduced the anxiety scores with a standardized mean difference (SMD) of 0.80 (95% CI − 1.15, − 0.44) and depression scores with an SMD of 0.67 (95% CI − 0.94, − 0.4) (p < 0.001). In four studies, reminiscence therapy significantly improved quality of life with an SMD of 0.37 (95% CI 0.18, 0.56) (p < 0.001).

Reminiscence therapy can be used by nurses as a nonpharmacological intervention to reduce anxiety and depression and improve quality of life in cancer patients during treatment, rehabilitation, and end-of-life periods. Further studies are needed as there is no standard for the duration and frequency of sessions.