The Effectiveness of Religion-Based Cognitive Therapy on Redcing the Psychological Symptoms of Cancer Patients

This research seeks to investigate the effectiveness of religion-based cognitive therapy on reducing the psychological symptoms of cancer patients. This research project is quasi experimental design with a pre-test, post- test given to a control group. From among 300 patients supported by Arezoo Charity Center in Pars Abad Moqan, 30 patients (15 females and 15 males) were chosen and divided into two groups: experimental group and control group, and convenience sampling was used in this study which was based on SCL-25 Symptom Checklist. The experimental group attended 8 two-hour sessions on religion-based cognitive therapy, whereas the control group received no treatment. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used for making a comparison between the means. The results show that religion-based cognitive therapy reduces all the aspects in SCL-25 scale except schizophrenia, somatization and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Moreover, religion-based cognitive therapy can be used as a supplementary treatment alongside the medical treatments to cure the psychological problems of cancer.