A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Meditation Combined With BrainLink Intelligent Biofeedback Instrument on Pancreatic Cancer Patients Under Chemotherapy.

Abstract

Background: Adjuvant chemotherapy can promote the 5-year overall survival rate of pancreatic cancer (PC) patients to 16%-21%. However, the negative emotions of patients, such as anxiety, are usually omitted. Moreover, their disease burden concentrates on pain symptoms, seriously affecting the quality of life of patients. How to improve the negative emotions of PC patients, alleviate their pain, and ameliorate their quality of life has become an urgent issue.

Objective: To explore the effect of mindfulness meditation (MM) combined with the BrainLink intelligent biofeedback instrument on the anxiety, pain, brain fatigue, and quality of life of PC patients under chemotherapy.

Method: A total of 145 PC patients under chemotherapy were admitted to the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Army Military Medical University from January 2022 to March 2024 and were incorporated as study objects. They were divided into a control group (n = 72) and a test group (n = 73) according to the random number table. The control group received routine nursing treatment; the experimental group was treated with MM combined with an intelligent biofeedback instrument. The general information, anxiety (SAS), pain (VAS), EEG signal data (degrees of fatigue, concentration, and relaxation and EEG waves), and quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30) of the two groups before intervention and 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks after intervention were compared.

Result: There is no significant difference in baseline data and pathological features between the two groups. After the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks of intervention, the SAS values of the experimental group are remarkably lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05). In the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks of intervention, the VAS scores of the experimental group are apparently lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05). In the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks of intervention, the score of the quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30) in the experimental group is significantly higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05). In the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks, compared with the control group, the experimental group patients showed significant improvement in brain fatigue relief, concentration, and relaxation levels (p < 0.05), while the experimental group's brain α and θ. The wave showed an upward trend (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: MM combined with the BrainLink intelligent biofeedback instrument can significantly mitigate the anxiety, pain severity, and brain fatigue relief degree of PC patients under chemotherapy, thereby promoting their quality of life. It provides a novel intervention for the psychosomatic health of PC patients under chemotherapy.