Comparing the Effects of Emotion-Focused Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on the Quality of Sexual Life and Sexual Function in Women with Breast Cancer

One of the main issues in women with breast cancer is their quality of sexual life. Studies suggested that in different countries, women with breast cancer feel that their sexual function has changed due to the disease and its treatment. Research indicated that cancer disrupts sexual function and self–esteem, leading to negative body image, reduced femininity, and decreased sexual activity. Emotion–Focused Therapy (EFT) is among the short–term treatment strategies to help women with breast cancer cope with emotional communication disorders. Coping with emotions is among the recent moves in family therapy and psychotherapy services. Moreover, CBT is a psychotherapy approach that could attract extensive interest in clinical specialists. Thus, this study aimed to compare the effects of EFT and CBT on the quality of sexual life and sexual function in women with breast cancer.

This was a quasi–experimental study with a multi–group pretest–posttest–follow–up and a control group design. The statistical population of the present study was all married women with breast cancer referring to Milad Hospital in Tehran City, Iran, in 2020. Forty–Five patients who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The study sample was selected by non–random sampling method; they were divided into two experimental groups (CBT & EFT), and a control group (n=15/group). The inclusion criteria of the study were having a minimum diploma education and the age range of 20–50 years. The exclusion criteria were any biopsychological illnesses other than breast cancer that would interfere with the study variables. The necessary data was gathered in pretest, posttest, and follow–up stages by the Sexual Quality of Life–Female (SQOL–F; Simmonds et al., 2005) and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI; Rosen et al., 2005). CBT was performed based on the CBT package of Young et al. (2001) in 10 sessions. Besides, EFT was conducted based on the therapy package of Johnson (2004) in 10 sessions. After 4 months, the follow–up test was re–performed in the experimental groups. Moreover, data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, & standard deviation) and inferential statistics, including repeated–measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni posthoc test in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05.

The current research results suggested that the quality of sexual life was significant respecting the effect of time (p=0.001); however, sexual function was not significant in this regard (p=0.450). There was a significant correlation between the interaction of group * time and the quality of sexual life (p=0.001); however, this interaction was not observed in sexual function (p=0.958). There was a significant difference in the quality of sexual life between the experimental and control groups (p=0.001); however, sexual function was not statistically significant (p=0.762). Furthermore, in the posttest and follow–up stages, there was a significant difference between the EFT, CBT, and control groups (p=0.001). There was no significant difference between the CBT and control groups in the posttest and follow–up stages (p=0.948 & p=0.738, respectively).

The present study results signified the effects of EFT as a supportive method in increasing the quality of sexual life among women with breast cancer.