The Effectiveness of Group-Based Compassion- Focused Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Improving the Quality of Life in Women With Feminine Cancers

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of group-based compassion-focused therapy (CFT) on depression, anxiety, and improving the quality of life (QoL) in women with feminine cancers.

A pretest-posttest control‐grouped, quasi‐experimental study was carried out on all women with cancer who were referred to the Omid Hospital of Mashhad in 2019. Thirty patients with various types of feminine cancers were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of group-based compassion-focused therapy (CFT) (n=15) or sham control (n=15). Participants in both conditions completed measures of Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI-II), and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) at pretest and posttest. Analysis of covariance was used for data analysis.

Our results showed that there was a significant difference between experimental and sham control groups in depression (F= 4/499, P<0.05, d=1.60 large) and anxiety (F=19/99, P<0.01, d=1.96 large), but there was no significant difference in participants’ QoL scale.

Group-based CFT could be considered a promising and potentially useful intervention to alleviate the depression and anxiety in cancer patients but it did not affect their QoL. Nevertheless, future randomized trials are needed.