The effectiveness of group positive psychotherapy on depression and happiness in breast cancer patients
A randomized controlled trial
Keywords:
positive psychotherapy, depression, happiness, breast cancerAbstract
Background: Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers in women in the world. It causes fear, despair, and takes a tremendous toll on psychological status.
Objective: To determine the effectiveness of group positive psychotherapy on the depression and happiness of breast cancer patients.
Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted with 42 breast cancer patients in The Oncology Center at Kermanshah, Iran in 2015. The Data were gathered before intervention and ten weeks afterwards. The data were collected using Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and Oxford’s happiness Inventory (OHI). The data were analyzed by SPSS-16, Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S), chi-squared, and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).
Results: The results showed a significant reduction in the depression of the group on positive psychotherapy compared with the control group. Also the positive psychotherapy group experienced a significant increase in the patients’ happiness, while there was no significant increase in the control group.
Conclusion: The results of this research showed the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on the reduction of mental pressure and the improvement of the mental status of breast cancer patients. This economical therapy can be used to increase patients’ psychological health.
Clinical Trial Registration: The trial was registered at the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRST) with the identification number IRCT2013101410063N4.
Funding: The authors received financial support for the research from Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences.
References
Chalmers KI, Luker KA. Breast self-care practices in women with primary relatives with breast cancer. J
Adv Nurs. 1996; 23(6): 1212-20. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1996.12820.x, PMID: 8796471.
Chalmers KI, Luker KA, Leinster SJ, Ellis I, Booth K. Information and support needs of women with
primary relatives with breast cancer: development of the Information and Support Needs Questionnaire. J
Adv Nurs. 2001; 35(4): 497-507. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01866.x, PMID: 11529948.
Tokkaya S, Karayurt O. Adaptation of the Information and Support Needs Questionnaire into Turkish to
use in women with primary relatives with breast cancer. Cancer nurs. 2010; 33(2): 119-26. doi:
1097/NCC.0b013e3181a92658, PMID: 20142747.
Chujo M, Kigawa J, Okamura H. Psychological Factors and Characteristics of Recurrent Breast Cancer
Patients with or without Psychosocial Group Therapy Intervention. Yonago Acta Med. 2011; 54(4): 65-74.
PMID: 24031131, PMCID: 3763793.
Carayol M, Bernard P, Boiche J, Riou F, Mercier B, Cousson-Gelie F, et al. Psychological effect of
exercise in women with breast cancer receiving adjuvant therapy: what is the optimal dose needed? Ann
oncol. 2013; 24(2): 291-300. PMID: 23041586.
Lizama N, Rogers P, Thomson A, Slevin T, Fritschi L, Saunders C, et al. Women's beliefs about breast
cancer causation in a breast cancer case-control study. Psycho-oncology. 2016; 25(1): 36-42. doi:
1002/pon.3869, PMID: 26087031.
Taira N, Iwata H, Hasegawa Y, Sakai T, Higaki K, Kihara K, et al. Health-related quality of life and
psychological distress during neoadjuvant endocrine therapy with letrozole to determine endocrine
responsiveness in postmenopausal breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2014; 145(1): 155-64. PMID:
De Ver Dye T, Bogale S, Hobden C, Tilahun Y, Hechter V, Deressa T, et al. A mixed-method assessment
of beliefs and practice around breast cancer in Ethiopia: implications for public health programming and
cancer control. Global public health. 2011; 6(7): 719-31. PMID: 20865612.
Henselmans I, Sanderman R, Helgeson VS, de Vries J, Smink A, Ranchor AV. Personal control over the
cure of breast cancer: adaptiveness, underlying beliefs and correlates. Psycho-oncology. 2010; 19(5): 525- 34. PMID: 19557825.
Carlson LE, Tamagawa R, Stephen J, Doll R, Faris P, Dirkse D, et al. Tailoring mind-body therapies to
individual needs: patients' program preference and psychological traits as moderators of the effects of
mindfulness-based cancer recovery and supportive-expressive therapy in distressed breast cancer survivors.
J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr. 2014; 2014(50): 308-14. doi: 10.1093/jncimonographs/lgu034, PMID:
Duckworth AL, Steen TA, Seligman ME. Positive psychology in clinical practice. Annu Rev Clin Psychol.
; 1: 629-51. PMID: 17716102.
Seligman ME, Steen TA, Park N, Peterson C. Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of
interventions. Am Psychol. 2005; 60(5): 410-21. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410, PMID: 16045394.
Sin NL, Lyubomirsky S. Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive
psychology interventions: a practice-friendly meta-analysis. J Clin Psychol. 2009; 65(5): 467-87. doi:
1002/jclp.20593, PMID: 19301241.
Schotanus-Dijkstra M, Drossaert CH, Pieterse ME, Walburg JA, Bohlmeijer ET. Efficacy of a
Multicomponent Positive Psychology Self-Help Intervention: Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled
Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2015; 4(3): e105. doi: 10.2196/resprot.4162, PMID: 26293678.
Layous K, Chancellor J, Lyubomirsky S, Wang L, Doraiswamy PM. Delivering happiness: translating
positive psychology intervention research for treating major and minor depressive disorders. J Altern
Complement Med. 2011; 17(8): 675-83. PMID: 21721928.
Seligman ME, Rashid T, Parks AC. Positive psychotherapy. The Am psychol. 2006; 61(8): 774-88. doi:
1037/0003-066X.61.8.774, PMID: 17115810.
Seyedi-Asl ST, Sadeghi K, Bakhtiari M, Khazaie H, Rezaei M, Ahmadi SM. The Effectiveness of Group
Positive Psychotherapy on Improving the Depression and Increasing the Happiness of the Infertile Women:
Clinical Trial. Pelagia Research Library. 2014; 4(3): 269-75.
Asgharipoor N, Asgharnejad Farid A, Arshadi H, Sahebi A. A comparative study on the effectiveness of
positive psychotherapy and group cognitive-behavioral therapy for the patients suffering from major
depressive disorder. Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci. 2012; 6(2): 33-41. PMID: 24644480, PMCID: 3940016.
Beck AT, Guth D, Steer RA, Ball R. Screening for major depression disorders in medical inpatients with
the Beck Depression Inventory for Primary Care. Behav Res Ther. 1997; 35(8): 785-91. doi:
1016/S0005-7967(97)00025-9, PMID: 9256522.
Dolle K, Schulte-Korne G, O'Leary AM, von Hofacker N, Izat Y, Allgaier AK. The Beck depression
inventory-II in adolescent mental health patients: cut-off scores for detecting depression and rating severity.
Psychiatry Res. 2012; 200(2-3): 843-8. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2012.05.011, PMID: 22657953.
Hills P, Argyle M. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: A compact scale for the measurement of
psychological well-being. Personality and individual differences. 2002; 33(7): 1073-82. doi:
1016/S0191-8869(01)00213-6.
Senf K, Liau AK. The effects of positive interventions on happiness and depressive symptoms, with an
examination of personality as a moderator. J Happiness Stud. 2013; 14(2): 591-612. doi: 10.1007/s10902- 012-9344-4.
Ruini C, Belaise C, Brombin C, Caffo E, Fava GA. Well-being therapy in school settings: a pilot study.
Psychother psychosom. 2006; 75(6): 331-6. doi: 10.1159/000095438, PMID: 17053333.
Wing JF, Schutte NS, Byrne B. The effect of positive writing on emotional intelligence and life
satisfaction. J Clin Psychol. 2006; 62(10): 1291-302. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20292, PMID: 16810662.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 KNOWLEDGE KINGDOM PUBLISHING
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
