Bespoke Members
Introduction
In our ageing society, the presence of chronic physical conditions is becoming more common and anxiety is a common sequalae of living with chronic disease. However, while cognitive-behavioural treatments for anxiety are associated with large effects, in the context of chronic illness, treatments have been shown to produce small changes or be ineffective. The concerns of those living with chronic illness, differ from those of people without chronic illnesses. It has recently been proposed that fear of the illness recurring or progressing is a fundamental fear that underlies anxiety in a range of conditions and is a transdiagnostic construct that impedes quality of life for people with chronic disease.
The event will be equivalent to 5.1/2hrs of CPD.
Content
This workshop will describe models of fear of disease recurrence and progression and examine the evidence that fear of progression is a transdiagnostic construct amongst those with chronic physical illness. This workshop will outline ways to help patients to be able to think about their future with uncertainty and live a life that has meaning and value to them, using a program called ‘Conquer Fear’. Conquer fear draws from acceptance commitment therapy, meta-cognitive therapy and behavioural strategies. Conquer Fear was shown in a large randomized controlled trial to be superior to relaxation training in reducing fear of cancer recurrence (FCR). The program includes values clarification and strategies from metacognitive therapy, that examine whether worry is helpful, harmful or controllable specifically in the context of FCR will be explored. Response prevention for checking behaviours and bodily monitoring will be described and demonstrated. Although this program was developed specifically for working with people living with or beyond cancer, the applicability for working with other illnesses in which fear of progression will be addressed.
Learning Objectives
By attending this workshop, attendees will be able to:
(1) Understand and describe the theories for why some individuals develop clinically significant concerns about their disease recurring and progressing;
(2) Identify effective treatment components, including values clarification, attention retraining, meta-cognitive therapy and behavioural response prevention and apply them to people with cancer and other chronic diseases;
(3) Provided with the ‘Conquer Fear’ treatment manual, an evidence-based intervention targeted to treating fear of cancer recurrence in the context of early stage cancer treated with curative intent; and
(4) Understand how to adapt the treatment and its manual to different chronic illnesses.
Training Modalities
There will be a combination of didactic content, Q&A, videos, self-experiential components, and polls.
Key References
Sharpe, L., Michalowski, M., Richmond, B., Menzies, R., Shaw, J. (2023). Fear of progression in chronic illnesses other than cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of a transdiagnostic construct. Health Psychology Review, 17, 301-320.
Fardell, J., Thewes, B., Turner, J., Gilchrist, J., Sharpe, L., Girgis, A., Butow, P. (2016). Fear of cancer recurrence: a theoretical review and novel cognitive processing formulation. Journal of Cancer Survivorship.
Butow, P.N., Turner, J., Gilchrist, J., Sharpe, L., Smith, A.B., Fardell, J.E., Stephanie Tesson, S., O’Connell, R., Girgis, A., Gebski, V.J., Asher, R., Mihalopoulos, C., Bell, M.L., Grunewald Zola, K., Beith, J., Thewes, B. (2017) Randomized Trial of ConquerFear: A Novel, Theoretically Based Psychosocial Intervention for Fear of Cancer Recurrence. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 35, 4066-4077.
Sharpe, L., Menzies, R., Richmond, B., Todd, J., MacCann, C., Shaw, J. (2024). The development and validation of the Worries about Recurrence and Progression Scale (WARPS). British Journal of Health Psychology, 29, 454-467.
Luigjes‐Huizer, Y. L., Tauber, N. M., Humphris, G., Kasparian, N. A., Lam, W. W., Lebel, S., ... & van der Lee, M. L. (2022). What is the prevalence of fear of cancer recurrence in cancer survivors and patients? A systematic review and individual participant data meta‐analysis. Psycho‐Oncology, 31(6), 879-892.
Clarke, S. T., Murphy, B. M., Rogerson, M., Le Grande, M., Hester, R., & Jackson, A. C. (2024). Conceptualizing fear of progression in cardiac patients: advancing our understanding of the psychological impact of cardiac illness. Heart and Mind, 8(1), 29-39.
About the presenter
Professor Louise Sharpe is a clinical psychologist by training and led clinical services in the National Health Service in the UK in the 1990s before taking up an academic position. She is well known for her work on adjustment to illness and internationally renowned for her work in pain and fear of disease recurrence and progression. She has written more than 340 peer-reviewed papers and been continuously supported by grant funding from either the Australian Research Council or National Health and Medical Research Council (the two major Australian funding systems) since 2002.
She has been awarded distinguished career awards from the Australian Psychological Society, The Australian Association for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (AACBT) and is a Fellow of both the AACBT and the Association for Social Scientists in Australia. She is regularly invited to speak about her work in keynotes, plenary sessions and invited workshops, including workshops at World Congress of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and International Psycho-Oncology Society conferences.
Who should attend
Clinicians with some experience and understanding of working with anxiety in general but would like to extend their skill to working in anxieties in the context of physical health conditions, such as cancer.