Comparison of the effect of narrative couple therapy, couple schema therapy and integrative behavioral couple therapy on hope and perceived stress among patients with coronary artery disease and their spouses

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of narrative couple therapy, couple schema therapy and integrative behavioral couple therapy on hope and perceived stress among patients with coronary artery disease and their spouses.

Coronary artery disease is one of the heart diseases that can make couples face problems and need help.

This research was a semi-experimental study with a pretest and posttest design and with a control group. The statistical population was people with coronary artery disease and their spouses in the winter of 2021. Sixty four couples were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to three experimental groups and a control group (16 couples for each group). Hope scale of Snyder and perceived stress of Leung et al. were used to assess dependent variables in two stages. The three intervention groups were each treated for 8 sessions of 90 minutes and the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance and post-hoc Bonferroni test.

The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference of integrative behavioral couple therapy and couple schema therapy with the control group in terms of hope (P≤0.0001), but there was no statistically significant difference between the narrative couple therapy and control group and between three interventions. About the perceived stress, the results showed that there was a statistically significant difference of integrative behavioral couple therapy, narrative couple therapy and couple schema therapy with the control group (p≥0.05).

  Considering the effect of integrative behavioral couple therapy and couple schema therapy in increasing hope and effect of the mentioned two interventions and narrative couple therapy in reducing perceived stress among people with coronary artery disease and their spouses. It is recommended to use these interventions in cardiovascular treatment centers.