The Effect of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Components of Anxiety (Physical, Behavioral and Cognitive) in Patients with Thalassemia Major

Thalassemia major (TM) is among the most common genetic diseases in Iran and around the world. Like any other chronic disease, TM exerts negative physical and psychological effects. Patients with Thalassemia major (TM) experience many physical and psychological problems in dealing with the serious complications of the disease, which affect their quality of life. A considerable proportion of adult patients with TM show symptoms of anxiety. Patients with TI are more susceptible to state anxiety. Some studies have pointed a considerable proportion of patients had depression (35.0%), State (S)-anxiety (22.5%) or Trait (T)-anxiety (36.2%). TM leads an increase in the frequency of depression and anxiety in both patients and their caregivers. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of cognitive behavior therapy on anxiety in patients with thalassemia major type.
This is a two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study. The population consisted of all diagnosed women with thalassemia major type that referred to Ali-Asghar hospital in Zahedan-Iran. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 24 participants. The participants were assigned to the experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The experimental group received Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 8 sessions- each 90 minutes. The research instrument was somatic cognitive behavioral anxiety Questionnaire at the pretest stage. In later stages of research, in the experimental group the cognitive behavioral group therapy was conducted for 8 sessions of 60 minutes. Covariance test was used to examine research hypotheses. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) - 18 was used to analyze the data.
The results showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy reduced all components of anxiety in the experimental group patients and the effect of intervention was meaningful in posttest and the follow up stage (P The result of showed that interventions based on cognitive-behavioral therapy can be used as an efficient way to reduce anxiety in patients with thalassemia major type.
On the other hand, using the techniques of cognitive therapy leads to even changes in patient's views about the symptoms of thalassemia.