The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy on Pain Tolerance and Trait-State Anxiety Among Children with leukemia cancer in Isfahan City

Due to the painful and long-term treatments of cancer, children with cancer may suffer from severe psychological problems such as anxiety and decreased level of pain tolerance. Accordingly, psychological treatments such as play therapy can be helpful in this regard. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on pain tolerance and trait-state anxiety in children with cancer in Isfahan. The statistical population of this study was all children aged 9 to 12 years old who were referred to specialized cancer clinic of Isfahan in 2016. 30 of them were selected through purposeful sampling and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. The results were analyzed using covariance analysis. The results of data analysis indicated that cognitive-behavioral therapy games resulted in increased pain tolerance and decreased trait anxiety in children with cancer (p <0.05). According to the findings of this study, cognitive-behavioral play therapy can be used as a complementary therapy to relieve anxiety and increase pain tolerance in these children. Declaration of Interest: None.