Effectiveness of Stress Management and Relaxation Training in Reducing the Negative Affect and in Improving the Life Quality of Women with Breast Cancer

The present study was an experimental design with follow-up and control group and it aimed at investigating the effectiveness of stress management and relaxation training (SMART) in reducing the Negative Affect and in improving the life quality of women with Breast Cancer. Population of the study included all the women with breast cancer who visited Mostafa Khomeyni Hospital and 18 patients were selected and were put randomly into experimental group (9 patients) and control group (9 patients) based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The B-SMART was administrated in 10 weekly sessions on the experimental group while there was no psychological treatment for the control group. PANAS questionnaire for Negative Affect, QLQ -C30, QLQ-Br23 questionnaires for quality of life, were completed by both groups before, after and 2 months after the program. The results obtained from the repeated measures analysis of variance showed the significant reduction of negative affect and improvement of the some life quality subscales of the experimental group in comparison to the control group which was stable during the 2 months follow-up.