Effectiveness of an attachment-based intervention on health and attachment indices in children with chronic disease

The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a new attachment-based intervention model named Mother-Child-Disease Triangle (MCDT) on health and attachment indices in children with chronic disease. Twenty-two mother-child dyads were included in the study as volunteers. All the children were receiving medical treatment in Tehran Pediatric Medical Center hospital following a chronic disease diagnosis. In pre-test stage a battery of questionnaires were administered. This consisted of the Inventory of Parent Attachment (IPPA)، Beck’s Depression Inventory- Primary Care (BDI-PC)، and Illness Perception Inventory (IPI) which were completed by children، and a 28 item Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-28) and Parenting Stress Index (PSI) which were completed by mothers. On the basis of pre-test scores، mother-child dyads were paired and then randomly assigned to an experimental or a control group. The experimental group received 10 sessions of MCDT intervention، meanwhile the control group received 10 simple conversational sessions، as a dummy intervention. Both groups were evaluated again by the tools after completing their respective treatment regimens. The analysis of data showed significant differences between the two groups after treatment and revealed significant improvement in attachment and health indices included depression، physiological and psycho-social health and total score of general health in the experimental group in pre-post-treatment stages compared to the control group. These finding suggest that using psychological intervention، especially attachment-based intervention، plus medical treatment، would improve the health and attachment indices in chronic disease inpatient children.