Clinical Focus Seminar – Coming to terms with the “C word”: Assessment and treatment for cancer-related PTSD and mood disorder

Title: Coming to terms with the “C word”: Assessment and treatment for cancer-related PTSD and mood disorder

Presenter: Dr Maria Kanga – Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University

About this seminar: Maria will begin by presenting an overview of key assessment considerations when screening for anxiety and mood disturbances in cancer patients. Particular focus will be on Cancer-related PTSD and comorbidities, and she will also briefly address current controversies pertaining to differential diagnostic considerations. She will then proceed to discuss the rationale and contents of an EBP-based CBT program for treating cancer-related PTSD and comorbid mood disorders which she has been testing with newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients. Several case-studies will be presented to illustrate how she has adapted TraumaFocused CBT for cancer patients. This workshop will involve interactive discussion.

About the presenter: Dr. Maria Kangas (PhD) is a Clinical Psychologist and a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Department of Psychology and Centre for Emotional Health at Macquarie University, Sydney. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of stress, anxiety and mood disturbances in medical and trauma populations. She has worked with various cancer populations in a clinical research capacity, including head and neck, lung, and breast cancer patients, as well as brain tumour survivors and their carers. In 2003, she completed a post-doctoral training fellowship in the Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and over the past 5 years has been a consultant on a psychological clinical trial with breast cancer patients at Mount Sinai. She has published scholarly articles on PTSD following cancer, as well as cancer-related fatigue. She is presently conducting several grant funded cancer and trauma assessment and treatment intervention studies with the following populations: head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy, adult brain tumour patients and their carers, recently treated cancer survivors, as well as treating children suffering from single-incident traumatic life events.