The effect of Hajat prayer on the mental health of patients with multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic and autoimmune disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Hajat prayer on the mental health of patients with multiple sclerosis.

In these clinical trial 60 patients with multiple sclerosis participated. Patients referred to the rheumatology clinic of Kashan Shahid Beheshti Hospital, were selected by convenience sampling method in 2018. Samples were randomly divided into two groups of 30 experimental and control groups. Patients in the experimental group prayed two rak'ats of Hajat prayer for two months after reading the daily prayers and then prayed to God for few minutes. The control group did not receive any intervention. Before, immediately and one month after the study, the Goldberg mental health questionnaires were completed by the patients and the two groups were compared. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using descriptive and analytical tests.

The results showed that there was no significant difference in demographic data and mean score of mental health before intervention between the two groups (P>0.05). But immediately after and one month after the intervention, there was a statistically significant difference in the mean score of mental health in the two groups. (P<0.05). The results of the repeated measures ANOVA showed that the mean changes of mental health and it demension varied over time and the interaction between group and time was significant for the variable of mental health (P<0.05).

Hajat prayer increases the mental health of patients with multiple sclerosis. It is recommended to be used as a complementary treatment to increase the mental health of these patients.