The effectiveness of cognitive existential group therapy on caregiving burden of mothers of children with thalassemia major

Mothers of children with thalassemia major, as primary caregivers, face many challenges and need psychotherapy in response to various problems caused by their chldrenchr('39')s illness. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive existential group therapy in reducing the caregiving burden of mothers of children with thalassemia major.

This quasi-experimental study was performed on 16 mothers of children with thalassemia major who referred to the Abu Rayhan Special Medical Center and Shahid Mohammadi hospital in Bandar Abbas in the summer of 2019. Mothers were selected using available sampling method and divided equally into intervention and control groups. The intervention group received eight sessions of cognitive existential group therapy during eight weeks. Data were collected using the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI) and analyzed by SPSS software.

Before the intervention, the averages of caregiving burden scores were 67.37±12.25 and 64.87±17.23 in the intervention and the control groups, respectively. After the intervention these averages were 40.8±4.7 and 65.75±24.94. The score of caregiving burden in five dimensions including temporal, evolutionary, physical, social, and emotional dimensions in the intervention group was significantly lower than that of the control group. After the intervention, the mean of caregiving burden in mothers of children with thalassemia major in the intervention group was lower than that of the control group and the difference was statistically significant (P-Value<0.001).

These results suggest that cognitive existential group therapy can be effective in reducing the caregiving burden in mothers of children with thalassemia major.