Abstract
Background: Pain, dyspnea, fatigue, and sleep disturbance are prevalent and distressing symptoms in persons with advanced heart failure. Although many lifestyle and self-care interventions have been developed to control heart failure progression, very few studies have explored treatments exclusively for symptom palliation. Cognitive-behavioral strategies may be effective treatment for these symptoms in advanced heart failure.
Objective: A systemic review was conducted to describe the effect of cognitive-behavioral strategies on pain, dyspnea, fatigue, and sleep disturbance in patients with heart failure.
Methods: CINAHL, Medline, and PsychINFO were searched from inception through December 2014. Articles were selected for inclusion if they tested a cognitive-behavioral strategy using a quasi-experimental or experimental design, involved a sample of adults with heart failure, and measured pain, dyspnea, fatigue, sleep disturbance, or symptom-related quality of life. The 2 authors evaluated study quality, abstracted data elements from each study, and synthesized findings.
Results: Thirteen articles describing 9 unique studies met criteria and were included in the review. Five studies tested relaxation strategies, 3 tested meditation strategies, and 1 tested a guided imagery strategy. Of the 9 studies, 7 demonstrated some improvement in symptom outcomes. Relaxation, meditation, guided imagery, or combinations of these strategies resulted in less dyspnea and better sleep compared with attention control or usual care conditions and reduced pain, dyspnea, fatigue, and sleep disturbance within treatment groups (pretreatment to posttreatment). Symptom-related quality of life was improved with meditation compared with attention control and usual care conditions and improved pre- to post-guided imagery.
Conclusions: Studies exploring cognitive-behavioral symptom management strategies in heart failure vary in quality and report mixed findings but indicate potential beneficial effects of relaxation, meditation, and guided imagery on heart failure-related symptoms. Future research should test cognitive-behavioral strategies in rigorously designed efficacy trials, using samples selected for their symptom experience, and measure pain, dyspnea, fatigue, and sleep disturbance outcomes with targeted symptom measures.