Randomized controlled trial of a group intervention combining self-hypnosis and self-care: secondary results on self-esteem, emotional distress and regulation, and mindfulness in post-treatment cancer patients

Purpose Cancer patients often report low self-esteem and high emotional distress. Two factors seem particularly linked to these symptoms: emotion regulation strategies and mindfulness. The interest of hypnosis and self-care to relieve these symptoms is not well documented. Our randomized controlled trial aimed at assessing the effect of a group intervention combining self-hypnosis and self-care on self-esteem, emotional distress, emotion regulation, and mindfulness abilities of post-treatment cancer patients, as well as investigating the links between these variables. Methods One hundred and four patients who had suffered from cancer were randomized into the intervention group ( N = 52) and the wait-list control group ( N = 52). They had to answer questionnaires before (T1) and after the intervention (T2). Nine men were excluded from the analyses, leading to a final sample of 95 women with cancer. Group-by-time changes were assessed with MANOVA, and associations with self-esteem and emotional distress were investigated with hierarchical linear regression models. Results Participants in the intervention group (mean age = 51.65; SD = 12.54) reported better self-esteem, lower emotional distress, a decreased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, and more mindfulness abilities after the intervention, compared to the WLCG. This increase in mindfulness explained 33% of the improvement of self-esteem and 41.6% of the decrease of emotional distress in the intervention group. Self-esteem and emotional distress also predicted each other. Conclusion Our study showed the efficacy of our hypnosis-based intervention to improve all the investigated variables. Mindfulness predicted the improvement of self-esteem and emotional distress. The primary impact of our intervention on mindfulness abilities seems to explain, at least in part, its efficacy. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03144154). Retrospectively registered on the 1st of May, 2017.