Evaluating the Efficacy of Positive Psychotherapy on Life Expectancy in Students With Hemophilia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Hemophilia is a genetic bleeding disorder results from a deficient in synthesis of a protein needed for blood clotting. The number of people with hemophilia in the United States is about 20,000. Iran having the ninth largest Hemophilia population in the world. Hemophilia lead to many psychological and physiological complications. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on the Life expectancy as one of psychological aspects in hemophilia students. The present study is a quasi-experimental interventional study along with experimental and control groups. The subjects were evaluated in the pre-test, post-test and two-month follow-up. Study population including all senior elementary and junior high school students with hemophilia who had medical records in Zahedan Hemophilia Society. After screening, 60 students were selected and randomly assigned into two 30-member groups of experimental and control. The research tool was Snyder Children’s Hope Scale questionnaire (1991). Positive psychotherapy workshop was held in 8 sessions (Two 120 minutes sessions weekly) and follow-up test was done two months after the end of the last training session. The obtained information was analyzed through repeated measurement variance. The results show significant effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on increasing Life expectancy in patients with hemophilia and indicated the durability of this therapy in the follow-up stage. In this research we highlighted the need for training and using positive psychotherapy as a new, safe and effective psychological therapy for student suffering Hemophilia. We emphasize for the implication of this study result and method by clinicians and policy makers to manage psychological problems of students suffering from Hemophilia.