Comparison of the effecacy of compassion-based therapy and behavioral activation therapy on adherence to treatment and quality of life in women with breast cancer

Today, the survival of women with breast cancer after diagnosis has increased, but for this category of patients, not only survival is important, but adherence to treatment after the occurrence and diagnosis of the disease and increased concern about the quality of life are also important. The effectiveness of various psychological treatments on adherence to treatment and quality of life of these patients has been investigated, but there is a gap in research regarding the comparison of the effectiveness of compassion-based therapy and behavioral activation therapy on the studied variables.

The purpose of this research was to compare of the effecacy of compassion-based therapy and behavioral activation therapy on adherence to treatment and quality of life in women with breast cancer.

The design of the current research was semi-experimental, of pre-test-post-test type with a control group and a two-month follow-up. 45 women with breast cancer in Gorgan during the years 2021 and 2022 were placed in three groups of compassion-based therapy, behavioral activation therapy and control group by simple random sampling method. To collect data, were used for Medication Adherence Scale (Morisky et al., 2008) and Quality of Life Questionnaire for cancer patients (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer). participants in the experimental groups underwent the interventions of compassion-based therapy (Gilbert, 2006) and behavioral activation therapy (Dimidchian et al. et al., 2008) were included in 8 sessions of 90 minutes. Also, the data were analyzed by repeated measurement variance analysis and LSD follow-up test with the help of SPSS19 software.

The findings of the research showed that both compassion-based therapy and behavioral activation therapy were effective on the adherence to treatment and quality of life of women with breast cancer (p<0.05). Also, the results showed that behavioral activation therapy was more effective than compassion-based therapy, and this significant level was stable in the follow-up phase (p<0.05).

According to the obtained results, it seems that interventions based on compassion and behavioral activation can improve the quality of life of this group of patients, while increasing adherence to treatment in women with breast cancer. The findings of this study can help doctors, psychologists and policy makers in the field of health and mental health.