Cognitive behavioral stress management effects on quality of life and negative emotions in women with breast cancer

Most people with cancer experience a period of mental stress. Cancer is one of the diseases which is highly related with mental health. There is much evidence that stress management can have a positive impact on the results of cancer treatment. The present study was performed with aim to investigate the efficacy of cognitive behavioral stress management training on stress، anxiety، depression and quality of life in women with breast cancer. This applicable study was performed on 32 woman recently diagnosed with stage I& II of breast cancer referred to Mashhad Imam Reza treatment center in 2012. They were randomly divided in two intervention and control groups. The intervention group received 10 weeks of cognitive behavioral stress management training by an experienced psychologist. Depression، anxiety، stress questionnaire (DASS) and quality of life questionnaire of SF36 were used as tools in pre-test and post-test. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 11) and independent-t test، f Lovin test، and Covariance analysis. there are significant differences between intervention and control groups in terms of stress and anxiety changes in post-test (P=0. 01). No significant difference was observed between both two groups in terms of depression after the intervention (P=0. 60، P=0. 50). Significant differences were observed between the scores of post-test and pre-test of quality of life in the intervention group after the intervention (P=0. 02). The cognitive behavioral stress management training is effective on stress، anxiety، and quality of life in women with cancer.