THE STUDY OF EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY IN GROUP ON MENTAL HEALTH AMONG PRIMARY MS PATIENTS

Multiple sclerosis disease is one of the most common chronic diseases in
central nervous system (CNS). The nature of chronic disease, not having a good prognosis and definite
cure are causes of having highest prevalence in various mental disorders like depression and anxiety.
The purpose of this part of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group
therapy on mental health of primary MS patients.
Materials & Methods: This study was conducted on 28 patients who had the lowest level of general
health selected by accessible sampling and were divided into two different groups of
experimental and control groups. The experimental group attended 10 sessions of cognitive-behavioral
group therapy based on Michael Free approach that lasted nearly 75-90 minutes and was held once a
week (one session per week) and the control group received no intervention. The measuring
instrument was General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) which was performed in two stages (pretest
and posttest) and the data were analyzed using Covariate (Ancova) Test.
Results: Accordingly covariance analysis emphasized that cognitive-behavioral group therapy
enhanced the mental health in posttest of the experimental group (p <0/01).
Conclusion: Cognitive-behavioral group therapy improves the mental health in primary patients.
Hence this method can be used in hospitals and nursing homes as a complementary treatment.