The effectiveness of spiritual group therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on increasing life expectancy and quality of life among cancer patients

Cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease. Cancer patients often experience severe stress. Improving or reducing the stress caused by cancer in patients is also possible with different psychological approaches. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to compare the effectiveness of spiritual therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on life expectancy and quality of life of cancer patients.

In this quasi-experimental study involving pre-test and post-test and follow-up by a control group conducted in 2020, we randomly selected 45 cancer patients admitted to Taleghani Hospital in Kermanshah province, which were divided into three groups: spiritual therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and control group. After the treatment, we compared them in three groups by SPSS v20 statistical software and covariance test using Quality of Life Questionnaire, Life Expectancy Questionnaire by Schneider.

The mean age of 45 selected patients was 28±14 years (14 females of 18-49 and 31 males of 22-45). 75% of patients were single and 25% were married. A family history of cancer was observed in 14% of patients. There were no significant differences in pre-test (17.04 ±2.35) and post-test (18.19 ± 2.11) scores related to life expectancy in patients in the control group. The results of analysis of covariance showed a significant difference (at the level of p <0.01) between post-test scores in the two experimental groups compared to the control group in terms of quality of life and life expectancy.

Both types of treatments were effective on patients and increased their quality of life and life expectancy. But spiritual therapy had a greater effect on quality of life and life expectancy among cancer patients compared to acceptance and commitment therapy. Therefore, by performing timely spiritual therapy interventions, we can help increase the quality of life and life expectancy of these patients.