Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Reducing Stress on Childhood Abuse Symptoms, Depression, and Chronic Pain Relief of Women Living in Sari City, Iran

Today, chronic pain is one of the most common problems, and the most common types of chronic pain are seen in people with low back pain, headache, cancer, and arthritis. Depression is more common in patients with chronic pain, and its growing prevalence has become a global concern. Depression in patients with chronic pain is associated with childhood abuse symptoms. Mindfulness–based cognitive therapy in reducing stress is one of the treatment methods that promotes psychological well–being and reduces depression in patients with chronic pain. We hope that this research draws the attention of therapists and psychological researchers to reduce the symptoms of chronic pain and associated psychological problems. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness–based cognitive therapy in reducing stress on childhood abuse symptoms, depression, and chronic pain relief in women with chronic pain living in Sari City, Iran.

The present research was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest, two months follow–up design, and a control group. The study's statistical population included all women with chronic pain living in Sari in 2019. Among the eligible volunteers, 20 women with chronic pain were randomly selected and assigned to two groups of 10 subjects (experimental and control). The study data were collected with the Self–Rating Depression Scale (Zung, 1965), Psychological Maltreatment Inventory (Coates & Messman–Moore, 2014), and Multidimensional Pain Inventory (Kerns et al., 1994). The experimental group received cognitive therapy training in eight 90–min sessions once a week for two months, but no intervention was performed for the control group. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics, including repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS software version 22. The significance level of statistical tests was set at 0.05.

The effects of group, time, and time × group interaction on the variables of childhood abuse symptoms (p<0.001), depression (p<0.001), and chronic pain (p<0.001) were significant. In the experimental group, the scores of childhood abuse symptoms and depression in the posttest and follow–up stages decreased significantly compared to the pretest (p<0.05) and significantly increased (improved) for the chronic pain variable (p<0.05). No significant difference was observed in the scores of childhood abuse symptoms and depression between the posttest and follow–up stages (p>0.05), but there was a significant difference in the scores of chronic pain variables between the two stages (p<0.05). For all three variables, the results showed the sustained effectiveness of the intervention in the follow–up phase.

Based on the study findings, cognitive therapy based on reducing stress is effective in reducing symptoms of childhood abuse and depression and improving chronic pain in women with chronic pain living in Sari.