Psychology

Gaps in Knowledge

  • Interventions for targeted subgroups of survivors at risk for pain, suicide ideation, psychological distress, poor HRQOL
  • Relationship between genetics and behavior (polymorphisms associated with pain, psychological distress, cognitive outcomes)
  • Pathways of outcomes related to maladaptive behaviors, psychological distress, pain, and poor HRQOL

Opportunities for Proposals Using Existing Data

  • Status of survivors whose questionnaires have been completed by proxy
  • Predictors of maladaptive health risk behaviors
  • Role of child development in psychological, cognitive and health behavior outcomes

Opportunities for Proposals Using Future Data

  • Psychological distress, HRQOL, and life satisfaction in the new cohort

Opportunities for Ancillary Studies

Non-intervention research

  • Assessment of emotional regulation in low grade astrocytomas
  • Association between polymorphisms related to increased pain in cancer populations (e.g., COMT) and to psychological and HRQOL outcomes

Intervention research

  • Interventions targeted at subgroups with pain, high psychological distress, poor HRQOL, and suicidal ideation
  • Enhancing self-advocacy for seeking help for high psychological distress, poor HRQOL, and/or suicidal ideation
  • Benefit-finding in survivors
  • Pilot the development of a telephone intervention that could help survivors with emotional distress gain better medical and psychosocial care
  • Validation study of the BSI-18 as a screening tool compared to psychiatric diagnostic interview administered by phone

Request for Submission of Topic-specific RFA

  • Interventions using newer technology (internet and/or cell phones) targeting subgroups of survivors with the greatest psychological distress and poor HRQOL morbidity
  • Plans for longitudinal studies that can take advantage of the multiple time points in the data to examine psychological and HRQOL outcomes
    • For example, studies of how changes in chronic conditions are tied to changes in depression and anxiety