The Effectiveness of Group Positive Behavioral Therapy and Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Depression in Women with Breast Cancer in Tehran

Abstract

Background:Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and depression is the most common mental disorder after the diagnosis of breast cancer among women.

Objectives:The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of group positive behavioral therapy and group cognitive behavioral therapy and control group on depression in women with breast cancer in Tehran.

Methods:It is an experimental study. The sample size was 15 people considered for each control group and positive behavioral group and cognitive behavioral group. 45 people were selected through convenient sampling and then randomly selected to be assigned to each group. The Beck Depression questionnaire was used for data collection and data were entered into SPSS 24 software for analysis. Mean and standard deviation was used to report descriptive information. Chi-square, paired t-test, and analysis of variance were used for analytical information.

Results:Most of the patients were in the age group of 33-40 years (57%) and 75% of the participants had Associate and Bachelor’s degrees and 76% of them had Moderate economic status. Compared to the depression score before the intervention, depression in the cognitive behavioral therapy group decreased by 35.66 units and in the positive behavioral therapy group decreased by 38.53 units, but in the control group, there was no significant change. In the positive behavioral therapy group, the rate of change was more in comparison to the cognitive behavioral therapy group.

Conclusions: The results of the present study showed that group positive behavioral therapy and group cognitive behavioral therapy are effective in reducing depression but positive behavioral therapy was more effective than cognitive behavioral therapy.