Development of a group semantic therapy program and its effectiveness on existential anxiety in female patients with metabolic syndrome

One of the most common diseases in Iran and the world is metabolic syndrome, which can be an important risk factor for other diseases such as diabetes, fatty liver, cholesterol, etc. The aim of this study was to develop a group semantic therapy program and evaluate its effectiveness on existential anxiety in female patients with metabolic syndrome.

This study consisted of two stages. In the first stage, a meaningful intervention program was developed and then in the second stage, after compiling and validating the treatment program, a semi-experimental research method with pre-test-post-experimental design with control group and two-month follow-up period was used. The research population included adult women between the ages of 25 and 60 with metabolic syndrome who referred to the health centers of Semnan city in 1397. Sampling method was selected as a sample of 30 people and individuals were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The research tool was the scale of existential anxiety (Thani et al., 2015).

The findings showed that the effect of group semantic therapy on death anxiety was also confirmed in patients with metabolic syndrome (p <0.01), but its stability was rejected over a 2-month period (p> 0.01). The effect of this training on loneliness anxiety and its 2-month stability was also rejected (p> 0.01). However, its effect on semantic anxiety and the stability of its effect were confirmed in a period of 2 months (p <0.01). Also, the effect of the training program on anxiety was rejected (p> 0.01), but the stability of its effect was confirmed in the 2-month follow-up period (p <0.01).

The results showed that the developed training program has practical features and can play a decisive and effective role in some of the variables of existential anxiety.