The effectiveness of group counseling with an existential approach on pain control, emotional regulation and social adaptation among patients with malignant gastrointestinal cancers

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of group counseling with an existential approach on pain control, emotional regulation and social adaptation of patients with malignant gastrointestinal cancers. The design of the research was semi-experimental and pre-test, post-test and two-month follow-up with a control group. The research population included all patients with malignant gastrointestinal cancer referred to Omid Hospital and Reza Specialized Oncology Center in Mashhad in the summer of 2021 whom 30 patients were randomly selected in two experimental groups (15 people) and control. (15 people) were placed. McGill's pain research tool was Gross Emotional Regulation and Social Adaptation (SAS), which was implemented on subjects in order to collect information in three stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. In order to analyze the data, the variance analysis test with repeated measurements was used. The findings indicated that group counseling with an existential approach has an effect on pain control, emotional regulation and social adaptation of patients with gastrointestinal malignant cancers (p>0.05); It should be mentioned, the durability of the treatment effect was maintained after three months (p>0.05). Based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that group counseling with an existential approach can be used in the field of pain control, emotional regulation and social adaptation of patients with malignant gastrointestinal cancers