A supporting role

A new study out of Stanford finds that women with breast cancer who participate in group therapy do not, contrary to previous findings, live longer than patients who do not take part in group therapy — but they do, however, have a higher quality of life. This brought to mind research conducted by Carnegie Mellon's Vicki Helgeson and Sheldon Cohen which revealed that group therapy improved the well-being of women with breast cancer who did not have strong family support or social networks, but actually harmed women who already had strong outside support.

That study was conducted in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, and together our two institutions have made Pittsburgh one of the world's leading centers of health psychology research. Pitt and Carnegie Mellon jointly operate the Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center. The center is led by Michael Scheier, head of the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon, and Karen Matthews, a professor of psychiatry at Pitt.

Jonathan Potts