UNASSIGNED: Psychological distress contributes to impaired quality of life in hematological @entity5 @entity1 . Stepped care treatment, in which @entity1 start with the least intensive treatment most likely to work and only receive more intensive interventions if needed, could improve distress. We aimed to evaluate the outcome of stepped care treatment on @entity458 and physical functioning in @entity1 treated with autologous stem cell transplantation for @entity1583 . In the present study, we performed a randomized clinical trial with two treatment arms: stepped care and care as usual. Baseline assessment and randomization occurred during pre-transplant hospitalization. Stepped care was initiated after 6  weeks, consisting of (1) watchful waiting, (2) Internet-based self-help intervention, and (3) face-to-face counseling/ psychopharmacological treatment/ referral. Follow-up measurements were conducted at 13, 30, and 42  weeks after transplantation. Stepped care (n   =   47) and care as usual (n   =   48) were comparable on baseline characteristics. The uptake of the intervention was low: 24 @entity1 started with step 1, 23 with step 2, and none with step 3. Percentages of distressed @entity1 ranged from 4.1 to 9.7  %. Ten percent of @entity1 received external psychological or @entity146 care. No statistically significant differences were found between stepped care and care as usual on @entity458 or physical functioning in intention to treat analyses, nor in per protocol analyses. The stepped care program was not effective in decreasing @entity458 . The low intervention uptake, probably related to the low levels of @entity458 , offers an explanation for this outcome. Future research should take into account @entity1 ' specific care needs. Netherlands Trial Registry identifier: NTR1770.

A randomized clinical trial on the effectiveness of an intervention to treat XXXX and improve quality of life after autologous stem cell transplantation.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity146 :: ('MESH:D001523', 'Disease') :: ['psychiatric'] @entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['cancer'] @entity458 :: ('MESH:D020018', 'Disease') :: ['psychological distress'] @entity1583 :: ('MESH:D019337', 'Disease') :: ['hematological malignancies']
@entity458 :: (MESH:D020018,Disease) :: ['psychological distress']
