EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL STRESS MANAGEMENT THERAPY IN GENERAL HEALTH OF ASTHMATIC PATIENTS

Introduction: Psychological therapy can have significant effects on improving the general health in asthmatic patients. The purpose of this research is to study the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) therapy in general health of asthmatic patients. Methods: In this experimental study, 24 female asthmatic patients were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The data was gathered using the Global Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), completed in pretest, posttest and follow-up stages by the participants. While CBSM therapy was conducted in 8 sessions on the experimental group, the control group received common medical treatments and meanwhile was laid in waiting list for psychological therapy. The obtained data was analyzed with SPSS software, mainly through the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results: The findings showed that mean scores of general health were decreased significantly in post-test and follow-up phases in experiment group (pre-test: 37.83 post-test: 30.33 follow-up: 35.66) compared to control group (pre-test: 38.17 post-test: 39.91 follow- up: 41.66) (P=0.0001). Conclusion: The results of present study demonstrate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral stress management therapy in the improvement of general health of female asthmatic patients. Due to the decrease of mental health in asthmatic patients and the effectiveness of mental intervention, special attention should be given to psychological treatment in this group of patients.