Effectiveness of positive psychology group therapy in reducing depression, stress and death anxiety in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy

Saeedi, Zahra; Bahrainian, Seyyed Abdolmajid; Ahmadi, Seyyed Mojtaba

doi:10.22038/jfmh.2016.8420

Effectiveness of positive psychology group therapy in reducing depression, stress and death anxiety in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Zahra Saeedi ¹

Seyyed Abdolmajid Bahrainian ²

Seyyed Mojtaba Ahmadi ³

¹ MS. student in clinical psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

² Associate professor of clinical psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

³ Ph.D. student in clinical psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

10.22038/jfmh.2016.8420

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of the present study was to study the effectiveness of positive psychology group therapy in reducing depression, stress and death anxiety in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016-17 on 32 patients suffering cancer and undergoing chemotherapy in two groups of control and experimental. The patients participated in positive group treatment sessions once in a week for 45 days. In the beginning of the therapy, evaluation forms of DASS-21 and Templer death anxiety were completed as pre-test. At the end of the sixth session a post test was conducted. Results were analyzed deploying SPSS 21 software accompanied by the analysis of variance, Chi-square and t, paired t-test.
Results:Comparing the mean scores of depression, stress and anxiety of death among the two groups, a statistically significant difference (P<0.001) were shown between the two groups of psychological positive therapy and control.
Conclusion: The results of this study show the effectiveness of treatment of positive group psychotherapy on reducing depression, stress and anxiety of death cancer among the patients undergoing chemotherapy. Providing necessary measures by the oncologists and senior managers in deploying positive group therapy to reduce depression, fear of death, stress and anxiety for the patients undergoing chemotherapy is recommended.

Keywords

Cancer

Death anxiety

Depression

Positive psychology

stress