Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry 35 (2004) 287–305 Efficacy of cognitive therapy for depression among women with metastatic cancer: a single-case experimental study Myl " ene L ! evesque a , Jos ! ee Savard a, *, S ! ebastien Simard a , Janel G. Gauthier b , Hans Ivers b a Laval University Cancer Research Center, 11 C # ote du Palais, Qu ! e, Canada, G1R 2J6 b School of Psychology, Universit ! e Laval, Cit ! e universitaire, Ste-Foy, Qu ! e, Canada, G1K 7P4 Received 20 December 2003; received in revised form 10 March 2004; accepted 12 May 2004 Abstract Although depression is frequent among patients with advanced cancer, very few studies have been conducted on its treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of cognitive therapy for depression in women with metastatic cancer, using a multiple baseline experimental design. Six participants were enrolled in the study and were asked to complete daily and weekly mood assessments. Intervention time-series analyses conducted on daily mood data showed statistically significant improvement of depression symptoms, more importantly anhedonia, and associated features (i.e., anxiety, fatigue) for each participant. These improvements were also found to be clinically significant at post-treatment. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Breast cancer; Advanced; Depression; Cognitive therapy 1. Introduction Despite remarkable progress in cancer care, metastatic cancer remains an incurable condition today. Therefore, it is no surprise that having such a bad prognosis is associated with considerable psychological distress, including ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-418-691-5561; fax: +1-418-691-5562. E-mail address: josee.savard@psy.ulaval.ca (J. Savard). 0005-7916/$-see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2004.05.002