THE EFFECT OF GROUP LOGOTHERAPY BASED ON THE FRANKEL'S LOGOTHERAPY SCHOOL ON DEPRESSION OF PATIENTS WITH GASTROINTESTINAL CANCER

Depression is one of the common psychological problems in the patients with gastrointestinal cancer and can affect their quality of life and recovery process. Various psychotherapy treatments are used to reduce depression in these patients. This study aimed to determine the effect of group logotherapy based on the Frankel's logotherapy School on depression in the patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

This study was a semi-experimental research with a pre-test-post-test design. The research population was all the patients with gastrointestinal cancer referred to Omid Hospital in Urmia, Iran. Among the inpatients and outpatients, 50 patients with gastrointestinal cancer who met the inclusion criteria were selected using convenience sampling. Then the patients were allocated to control and intervention groups randomly. The data collection tool in the current study was a demographic questionnaire and Beck's depression questionnaire. All meetings were held online using the Ghara software. The intervention group was randomly divided into two groups of 12 and 13 people. Ten sessions, each lasting 60-90 minutes, were held for two weeks of group logotherapy based on the Frankel's School for the patients in the intervention groups. The control group members did not receive any intervention. Beck Depression Questionnaire was completed by the participants of both groups before and at 4th and 30th days after the end of the intervention. The results were analyzed using SPSS version 22 software.

The mean score of depression in the intervention group in the first, second, and third stages were 22.78 ± 7.24, 10.28 ± 3.832, and 11.17 ± 3.73, respectively; however, in the control group, they were 20.37 ± 7.485, 21.42 ± 6.543, and 20.47 ± 6.67, respectively. According to the results of the repeated measures analysis of variance, the mean difference between depression scores in the first, second, and third phases were statistically significant, indicating the intervention's effect on the mean depression score (P=0.003).

These results show that logotherapy based on the Frankel School can facilitate recovery of depression in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.