Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy with Emphasis on Islamic-Based Spiritual Beliefs on Increasing the Spirituality and Mental Health of Multiple Sclerosis Patients; a Case Study of Markazi Province, Iran

Aims: Regarding the effect of attitudinal and Cognitive-behavioral Therapies (CBT) on increasing the mental health of chronic patients and the effect of religious and spiritual coping methods on decreasing the perceived pain and chronic diseases as well as considering the existence of the field of Islamic discussions and their role and place in the culture of Iranian society, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of cognitive-behavioral group therapy with emphasis on Islam-based spiritual beliefs in increasing spirituality and mental health of patients with MS.
In this applied semi-experimental research with a pretest post-test design, in 2016, 40 patients with MS (recurrence and regression) aged 35 to 50 years were selected voluntarily by random sampling method; they were randomly assigned to control (20 subjects) and experimental (20 subjects) groups. To collect the data, the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) and the Mental Health Assessment Scale for patients with MS were used. The experimental group was under the cognitive-behavioral group therapy with emphasis on Islam-based spiritual beliefs for 15 sessions, each taking 2 hours, in a weekly basis. The data were analyzed by SPSS 17, using Independent sample t-test.
Findings: There was a significant difference between the mean daily spirituality scores and mental health in both experimental and control groups (p=0.001).
Cognitive-behavioral group therapy with emphasis on Islam-based spiritual beliefs is effective in increasing spirituality and mental health of patients with MS in Markazi province, Iran.