Studying the Effectiveness of Couples Oriented Emotional-Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention on Reduction of Sexual Problems in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Preliminary Study

The aim of this study was to design and test the effectiveness of a couples oriented emotional-cognitive-behavioral intervention model and patient-oriented cognitive-behavioral intervention model of sexual problems in women with rheumatoid arthritis. The research used a quasi-experimental design with pretest, and post-test, and a 3 month of follow-up. The research samples consisted of 90 women with rheumatoid arthritis recruited from Imam Khomeini hospital’s rheumatology corridor as well as 2 rheumatology medical offices in northern and central Tehran. They were divided to three groups, including the first experimental group (intervention based on the couples-oriented emotional-cognitive-behavioral model), the second experimental group (intervention based on the patient-oriented cognitive-behavioral model), and the control group. The measuring instrument used was Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS-F) which was filled by participants at the pre-test, post-test, and 3-month follow-up stages. The inflammatory marker (CRP) levels also were measured through blood tests before and after interventions. The result of repeated measures analysis showed that both models can be effective, but in comparison with the patient–oriented intervention, the couple–oriented intervention seemed to have a more significant positive impact on the reduction of sexual symptoms. However, there was still no difference in the level of the inflammatory marker (CRP) in pre and post tests of the 3 groups. According to the findings, it can be concluded that the couples-oriented emotional-cognitive-behavioral intervention can be used as an effective intervention to reduce sexual problems in patients with rheumatoid arthritis even though it does not seem to have any impact on the inflammatory marker (CRP).