Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training on psychological symptoms, pain in patients with thalassemia major

Thalassemia is one of the most common chronic and hereditary diseases. This study’s main purpose was to determine the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training on psychological symptoms, pain in patients with thalassemia major.

This quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design with control group was carried out in 2019. Fifty patients with thalassemia major in Bandar Abbas city were selected purposefully and assigned to experimental (n=25) and control (n=25) groups. 8-session training was performed to the experimental group in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The Beck Anxiety and Depression questionnaire, Brief Pain questionnaire was used for data collection in pretest and posttest phases. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software using univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance.

By controlling the pretest effect, there is a significant effect in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in reducing the anxiety (F=32.72) and depression (F=49.02), pain (F=25.47), (P=0.001).

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is an effective method in reducing the psychological symptoms, as well as pain in patients with thalassemia major.