Not Over When it’s Over: Coping with Chronic Fatigue and Insomnia after Cancer Therapy

During cancer treatment, many patients experience problems with insomnia and fatigue.  Most patients can expect these symptoms to improve after they finish their treatment, but as many as 30% will experience chronic fatigue or insomnia even long after treatment.  This presentation will explain how these symptoms develop, how they differ from transient fatigue and sleep problems, and what resources are available to help manage them.  The information presented will be most relevant for individuals who have completed their cancer treatment, but all are welcome to attend.

This program will meet on Zoom. Open to Healing Garden clients and caregivers. 

Led by Christopher Recklitis, Ph.D. MPH is the Director of Research and Support Services for the Perini Family Survivors’ Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. As a clinical psychologist, he has provided behavioral health care for pediatric and young adult cancer survivors for over 25 years. His research examining the psychological late effects of cancer has been funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and several foundations.  His current research studies focus on optimizing psychological distress measures for clinical use and developing novel behavioral health interventions for survivors with insomnia.