Journal Article

The effect of a group cognitive behavioral therapy on the quality of life and emotional disturbance of women with breast cancer

Ranjbar, Hadi, Jelvehzadeh, Faranak, Dogaheh, Ebrahim Rezaei, Bernstein, Colleen, Shakiba, Shima

2022

Overview

Purpose While the rate of survival has increased in the past decade, the diagnosis of breast cancer is an extremely stressful experience for patients and it is associated with the manifestation of several psychological problems. To examine the effect of a group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on the quality of life and emotional disturbance of women with breast cancer. Methods The study was a randomized controlled clinical trial. Samples were 48 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone mastectomy and chemotherapy. Study variables were measured before and after the intervention and 1 month after the end of the intervention as a follow-up. Controls received nothing and were just followed-up. Repeated measure ANOVAs were used to compare the effectiveness of the intervention on the study variables. Results The results of 32 women were analyzed. The increase in quality of life scores was significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the control group ( P  < 0.05). There were also significantly lower changes in the depression, anxiety, and stress scores of the intervention group ( P  < 0.05). However, the changes in the score of death anxiety were not significantly lower in the intervention group in comparison to controls ( P  > 0.05). Conclusion Group cognitive behavioral therapy was effective in the improvement of quality of life and decreases some aspects of emotional disturbance. Findings of this study suggest that women with breast cancer can benefit from group CBT. Yet, some aspects of the mental health of these women may need more attention and individualized methods. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: IRCT20100911004728N4

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Affective Symptoms / Analysis / Anxiety / Behavior / Behavior modification / Behavioral health care / Breast cancer / Breast Neoplasms - therapy / Cancer / Chemotherapy / Clinical research / Clinical trials / Cognition / Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Cognitive therapy / Cognitive-behavioral factors / Death anxiety / Depression - epidemiology / Depression - etiology / Depression - therapy / Emotional disturbances / Emotions / Female / Group therapy / Groups / Health aspects / Humans / Intervention / Mastectomy / Medical diagnosis / Medical research / Medical treatment / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Medicine, Experimental / Mental disorders / Mental health / Nursing / Nursing Research / Oncology / Original Article / Pain Medicine / Patients / Psychological problems / Psychotherapy / Quality of Life / Registration / Rehabilitation Medicine / Variables / Women / Womens health