A Study on the Effectiveness of Caregiver's Group Supportive-Training Intervention on the Mental Health of MS Patients

According to global and regional statistics multiple sclerosis (MS) is increasingly prevailing all over the world. MS is an auto immune disease of the central system. It has a significant social, psychological and physical impact on the affected individual as well as his or her family. This research examined the effect of MS patient’s caregiver’s participation in group supportive- training therapy on the improvement of patient’s mental health (decrease of depression and anxiety, increase of positive effect).
The present research design is a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental method with control group. The statistical population of research is included relapse-remitting MS Patients of 20-35 years old referring to Iranian MS society in 2013 who resided in Tehran. Sample of this research consists of 24 relapse-remitting MS Patients of 20-35 years old that are selected purposively and they were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The research measure of research was MHI scale of MSQLI inventory which was answered by 24 subjects (experimental & control groups) in pretest-posttest. Caregivers of experimental group attended 8 sessions of supportive-training group counseling that lasted nearly 90 minutes and hold once a week. Caregivers of control group did not receive any intervention. Collecting data were analyzed by using independent “t” test.
The finding of research indicated supportive- training intervention on caregivers of MS Patients was effective on the improvement of patient’s mental health.
Findings of present research show supportive- training intervention for MS Patient’s caregivers is dramatically effective on the patient’s mental health. At last applying proper intervention for MS Patient’s caregivers in other MS Societies on the purpose of improvement of care giving affected patients quality of life is suggested.