The Effect of Metacognitive Therapy on Treatment Adherence and Life Expectancy of Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers

Cancer as a chronic and severe disease, causes a lot of psychological distress in patients. One of the psychological interventions to control distress is metacognitive therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate this type of treatment on life expectancy and consequently adherence to the treatment of the patients. This study was a quasi-experimental two-group study. A total of 70 patients with gestational cancer were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into the intervention (n = 35) and control (n = 35) groups. The intervention group received 5 sessions (45-60 min) of metacognitive therapy, but the control group received the routine intervention. Data were collected using three questionnaires including: demographic and disease data questionnaire, Madanloo Treatment Adherence Questionnaire and Snyder’s Hope Scale. Metacognitive therapy made significant changes in life expectancy and adherence to treatment in the intervention group compared to the control group (P < 0.0001). The results of an adjusted analysis of covariance to compare the scores of treatment adherence and life expectancy after the intervention in the intervention group were 15.55 and 19.6 higher on average, respectively. The study indicates that metacognitive therapy has been effective in improving life expectancy and adherence to treatment of patients with gastrointestinal cancer. This intervention can be considered as an effective psychological intervention for these patients. Therefore, it is suggested that this intervention be established and promoted in counseling and psychotherapy centers in hospitals and treatment centers to accelerate the recovery process of these patients.