Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy on Psychological Capital and Post Traumatic Growth in Women with Multiple Sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurological and progressive disease. Living with MS has many negative and positive effects on patients' physical and mental health. This study aimed to investigate the effect of emotion-focused therapy on post-traumatic growth and psychological capital in women with Multiple Sclerosis.

This study used a quasi-experimental method (a pretest-posttest plan with a control group). Participants consisted of 30 women with Multiple Sclerosis who were selected using a convenience sampling method and were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control groups. Our measuring tool was a psychological capital inventory and posttraumatic growth inventory which was completed by the participants. Then, the participants in the experimental group participated in 10 sessions of 60 min of emotion-focused therapy in 10 weeks but the control group didn’t receive any therapy. Analysis of covariance method was used to analyze data.

Analysis of data showed that there was significant difference in psychological capital and posttraumatic growth in the experimental group, compared to the control group. (P≥ 0/05) There was a significant deference in all the subscale of psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism) and the fourth posttraumatic growth subscale (communication, personal strength, value of life and new ways) in women with MS in the experimental group (P≥ 0.05), but no significant difference in the spiritual change subscale.

The result showed, emotion-focused therapy can be an effective intervention to increase psychological capital and posttraumatic growth in MS patients and can be used to improve the psychological state and better cope with the disease.