Effect of Memory Specificity Training on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of Patients with Cancer

Diagnosis with cancer is a traumatic event for the affected person and challenges them in various individual, social, occupational and interpersonal fields. The present study aims to assess the effect of Memory Specificity Training (MEST) on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) of patients with cancer.

This is a quasi-experiment study with a pre-test/post-test/follow-up design. The study population consists of all patients with cancer referred to hospitals and medical centers in Tehran, Iran. Of these, 60 patients were selected by a convenience sampling method. They were randomly divided into intervention (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. The intervention group received MEST at 6 sessions, each for 90 minutes. Patients’ demographic data were recorded using a semi-structured interview. They completed the PTSD checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Collected data were analyzed using the mixed analysis of variance in SPSS v. 24 software.

The main effect of group (F=58.56, P<0.01, η2=0.502) and time (F=579.89, P<0.01, η2=0.912) on total PCL-5 score were significant in the intervention group compared to the control group. The differences from the pretest phase to the posttest and follow-up phases were significant.

The MEST is effective in reducing PTSD symptoms of patients with cancer.Keywords: Posttraumatic stress, Cancer, Memory specificity training.