Comparing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy on Psychological Distress and Quality of Life of Psoriasis Patients

Skin diseases, such as psoriasis, are associated with significant psychological and social disabilities. Thus, the present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effects of classical cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and compassion focused therapy (CFT) on psychological distress and quality of life (QOL) of patients with psoriasis.

The present study was a quasi-experimental research with a pretest-posttest design, follow-up, and a control group. The statistical population of the present study included all patients with psoriasis who referred to skin treatment centers in Tehran, Iran, between December and February 2019. From among them, 60 people were selected using a convenience sampling method and after matching them, they were assigned to three groups (20 people in each group). The participants of experimental group 1 received 10 sessions of classical CBT and the participants of experimental group 2 received 7 sessions of CFT, but the control group did not receive any training. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10 and K6‎; 2002) and World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL‎-BREF; 1996) questionnaire were used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS software.

The results showed that the effectiveness of both therapies on reducing the psychological distress and increasing the QOL of patients is significant (P < 0.01), but the effectiveness of the CFT was greater.

It seems that CFT as a selected treatment can help improve the psychological distress and QOL of patients with psoriasis by increasing kindness to self and others and managing emotions.