The effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on the dysfunctional beliefs, self- talk and self-management of cancer

Cancer is among the most prevalent health problems of the present century and some of them can change patients’ physical appearance (such as face change, lesion and severe hair loss). Some patients after mastectomy and chemotherapy confront with removal of a breast and hair loss and have psychological well-being problem. This study aimed at evaluating the effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on the dysfunctional beliefs, self- talk and self-management of cancer patients with changes in physical appearance. This was a pretest-posttest controlled quasi-experimental study. A convenience sample of 40 patients with appearance change have been selected through available non-random sampling and randomly allocated to the experimental and the control groups . Patients in the experimental group received mindfulness-based educations in eight sessions. Before and after the study intervention, patients in both study groups completed the Jone’s Irrational Belief Test, the Self-Talk Scale and Self-management scale.  Study findings with multivariate analysis of variance revealed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy significantly improved the participating patients’ irrational beliefs, self-talk and self-management. This finding confirmed that mind-fullness therapy make awareness about beliefs and reduce irrational beliefs about body deficiency and negative appraisal.