Spiritually-oriented cognitive therapy in reduction of depression symptoms in mothers of children with cancer

ABSTRACT

Some of the mothers of children with cancer suffer from reactive depression and confront existential crises, and benefit from their image of God in coping with it. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of spiritually-oriented cognitive therapy on reducing depression symptoms in mothers of children with cancer. A single case experimental design and an A-B form were used in this study. The participants were selected through purposeful sampling. We studied three of the mothers of children who had been admitted to the pediatric ward of 'Mofid Pediatric Hospital'. These children were aged under 12years; they suffered from any kind of cancer except brain tumor; cancer had not metastasized to other parts of the body; the mothers themselves had no history of psychiatric illness prior to their child's illness, and had mild to moderate depression at the time of screening. These mothers were subjected to spiritually-oriented cognitive therapy for 10 individual sessions, 90 minutes per week. The depression grade and the changes were measured with Beck Depression Inventory [BDI-II]. Comparing the mothers' scores through 8 times of completing the inventory [three at baseline, three during the therapy and two follow-ups], and calculating the percent of recovery showed a decrease in depression scores. It seems that spiritually-oriented cognitive therapy can enhance the spiritual experience and reduce depression in cognitive and existential contexts