The Effects of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Group Therapy on Anxiety, Depression, Stress, and the Intolerance of Uncertainty in Infertile Women

The present study aimed to examine the effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) group therapy on anxiety, depression, stress, and the Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) in infertile women receiving In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

This was a randomized clinical trial with a pre-test/post-test and 3-month follow-up design. The study sample included 30 women with infertility who referred to Taleghani Hospital in Tehran City, Iran in 2018. We enrolled 30 individuals in the present study. The study samples were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control (n=15/group). All study participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS) before and after providing the intervention. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS.

The current research results revealed a significant difference between the MBSR and control groups in IU, stress, depression, and anxiety. Furthermore, there were significant differences in all dependent variables between pre-test and post-test scores except for IU in the experimental group.

The provided MBSR group therapy could reduce the rate of depression, anxiety, and stress in infertile women receiving IVF; however, it presented no significant effect on IU. In other words, IU may be a complex phenomenon, i.e. amenable to treatment and further studies are required to examine its reasons.