Effectiveness of group training based on acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety and depression of women with breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women that as a sudden event has profound effects on all aspects of patients' lives. Psychosocial interventions may play important roles in reducing anxiety and depression among breast-cancer survivors. Therefore, group training based on acceptance and commitment therapy may help women to cope better with their condition, and decrease their anxiety and depression. In a quasi-experimental study, 30 patients with breast cancer were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to 2 experimental and control groups. The experimental group attended acceptance and commitment training classes for 8 weeks continuously [each class lasting 90 minutes]. Participants in both the experimental and control groups completed Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI] and Beck Depression Inventory [BHI-II] as a pretest and posttest. Analysis of Covariance was used as the statistical method. In acceptance and commitment group training, anxiety and depression significantly decreased [p<0/05]. These changes were not observed in the control group. The results showed that group training based on acceptance and commitment therapy is an effective method in reducing anxiety and depression. Hence psychological interventions can be used to reduce psychological difficulties of women with breast cancer

Efficacy of group logotherapy on decreasing anxiety in women with breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most incident cancer and the fifth cause of death due to malignancies among Iranian women. A strong breast cancer patients' sense of meaning and purpose in life appears to decrease anxiety in their life. The present study has investigated the effectiveness of group Logotherapy on the reduction of anxiety in women with breast cancer. The research was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and control group. For this purpose, 30 patients with breast cancer were randomly divided into two experimental group and control group. Then, all patients completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI]. The experimental group received Logotherapy-based group counseling for eight sessions; however, the control group did not receive any specific training. In the end, both groups were tested again. After collecting the questionnaires, data was analyzed by the statistic software SPSS version 18 and using analysis of covariance. The research results showed that group Logotherapy was effective in reducing anxiety in women with breast cancer [p<0.005]. In other words, this intervention could reduce anxiety in the experimental group. The results suggest that in line with current medical treatment, psychosocial interventions can be used to reduce anxiety in the breast cancer patients