The Effectiveness of Group-based Cognitive Hypnotherapy on the Psychological Well-being of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Randomized Clinical Trial

ABSTRACT

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, demyelinating disease of the central nervous system mainly affecting young adults. In addition to physical problems, the patients suffer from many psychological problems affecting their psychological well-being. The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of group-based cognitive hypnotherapy on the psychological well-being of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. This study was designed as a clinical trial with a pretest-posttest control group. From 60 patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis referred to Beheshti hospital in Yasuj, Iran, 45 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected by the convenience sampling method. The patients were randomly assigned to intervention (23 individuals) and control (22 individuals) groups through stratified random allocation. After completing the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being, the intervention group attended eight sessions of group-based cognitive hypnotherapy on a weekly basis. The control group did not attend any intervention sessions. At the end of the eight intervention sessions, both groups completed the Ryff’s Scale of Psychological Well-being again. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS software (Version 23). Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and two-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used in order to compare the groups. The results indicated that cognitive hypnotherapy had a significant effect on the total score of psychological well-being (F (45, 1) = 6.07, p = .018, η2 = 0.12) and the dimension of environmental mastery (p < .05). Therefore, it is recommended to use hypnotherapy to promote the psychological well-being of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive hypnotherapy
• multiple sclerosis
• psychological well-Being

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the patients participated in the research.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The research proposal was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Yasuj University of Medical Sciences and, the study was carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration. The reference letter is 23.2.2618. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study

Additional information

Funding

The financial support for this study was provided by The Research and Technology deputy of Yasuj University of Medical Sciences; Yasuj University of Medical Sciences [23.2.2618].