The Effectiveness of Mental Immunization on Depression and Anxiety in Children with Diabetes Type1

Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic disorders that its prevalence is becoming a public health concern in the present century. It should be noted that cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social factors play an important role in the development, regulation, and inhibition of diabetes. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of psychosomatic immunization therapy on depression and anxiety in children with diabetes.

The present study was a semi-experimental with pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all children aged 12-8 years with diabetes who referred to Ahvaz city medical centers in the first quarter of 2018. The sample consisted of 30 children from the statistical population who were selected by convenient sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The research instruments included Children's Depression Questionnaire (Reynolds, 1989) and Children's Anxiety Inventory (Beck, 1990). First, pre-test were performed for two groups, and then psycho-emotional intervention against stress for children and mothers of the experimental group was performed for ten 60-minute sessions (during two months, two sessions per week) and the control group, and the control group did not receive the intervention. It was the turn of the intervention. Finally, post-test was performed for both groups and the data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance using SPSS-19 software.

The results of data analysis showed that the effect of psychosomatic immunization therapy on depression (P <0.001; F = 21.04) and anxiety (P <0.001; F = 19.43) in children with diabetes.

Overall, the results showed that psychological immunization interventions, by influencing parents and their children, reduced the symptoms of depression and anxiety in children with type 1 diabetes.