Research in Behavioral Medicine

Principal Investigator: Allison Applebaum, PhD and Douglas Mennin, PhD

MGH Site Principal Investigator: Jamie Jacobs, PhD

Funding Source: National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Project Number: R01CA244185

Description: This is a multisite randomized controlled trial comparing Emotion Regulation Therapy to Traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to reduce distress and burden in family and friend caregivers of patients undergoing treatment for varying cancer types and stages. Caregivers caring for patients with any type of cancer or any stage of disease are eligible to participate and will receive 8 free individual therapy sessions via videoconference. Patients are also eligible to complete surveys if their caregiver is enrolled in the trial. Enrollment is active. Learn More >

Potential participants: We are recruiting informal caregivers to patients with any site/stage of cancer who have received any type of medical treatment (e.g. curative, palliative) at MGH in the past 12 months. Eligible caregivers are experiencing distress as evidenced by a score equal or above the study-specific cutoff on the Distress Thermometer (DT) and indicate that distress is associated with the caregiving experience. Interested patients or caregivers may contact the study coordinator for more information at caregivingresearch@mgh.harvard.edu.

Principal Investigator: Deborah Forst, MD

Co-investigator: Jamie Jacobs, PhD

Funding Source: Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Description: This is a randomized controlled trial to examine the efficacy of a 6-session intervention based in cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce anxiety in caregivers of patients with malignant gliomas, in comparison with usual care. Caregivers of patients with malignant gliomas are eligible and will be randomly assigned to either the intervention (6 sessions with a therapist via videoconference) or a usual care control group.

Project Status: Recently completed; in data analysis.

Potential participants: No longer recruiting.

Principal Investigators: Conall O’Cleirigh, PhD, Bettina Hoeppner, PhD

Funding Source: National Institute of Health (NIH)

Project Number: 1R21CA261458-01

Description: People with HIV who smoke lose more life-years to smoking than to HIV. Public health efforts to reduce the prevalence of smoking have under-served this important population, as demonstrated by the prevalence of smoking among persons living with HIV, which is more than twice as high compared to the general population. We propose to develop an integrated smoking cessation treatment that builds on our expertise and the field's successes in leveraging the HIV clinical care setting and smartphone app technology to provide scalable, tailored, sustained smoking cessation support to HIV-positive people who smoke.

Potential participants: Currently enrolling participants.

Principal Investigator: Elyse R. Park, PhD, MPH; Jamie Ostroff, PhD

Funding Source: National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Project Number: 1R01CA214427-01A1

Description: The Smoke Free Support Study 2.0, or SSS2, is designed to examine the effectiveness and implementation of a virtually delivered, evidence-based tobacco treatment, in cancer care for patients in community oncology settings. SSS2 is designed to compare the effectiveness and implementation of an Enhanced Usual Care (EUC; control group) versus a Virtual Intervention Treatment (VIT; intervention group) for tobacco cessation in newly diagnosed cancer patients who smoke. Trial findings will establish the effectiveness and cost of utilizing a virtual strategy to deliver evidence-based tobacco treatment in community oncology settings and provide detailed initial data on implementation processes that will inform subsequent testing of multi-level implementation strategies for broad national dissemination into community cancer care settings.

Potential participants: Closed to enrollment