The Effectiveness of Integrative psychotherapy on Self-esteem among women with systemic sclerosis (scleroderma

The nature of systematic scleroderma is very threatening and debilitating and affects mental health, including the destruction of self-esteem in the patient. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of integrated psychotherapy with the orientation of four common factors on self-esteem and its four components (general, social, familial, and occupational or educational) in women with scleroderma. Therefore, in a Semi-experimental research was carried out with pretest design, post-test with control group and follow-up after 3 months of intervention. The statistical population included women with scleroderma referred to Shariati Hospital and Iran's Rheumatism Center in 2016. Of these, 30 patients were selected as available samples and randomly were placed in two control and treatment (experiment) groups, each of which consisted of 15 individuals. The instrument of this research was Cooper Smith's (1967) Self-esteem Questionnaire. The results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed that integrated psychotherapy with the orientation of four common factors, self-esteem and all its components increased in women with scleroderma, and this effect was lasting after three months. Therefore, integrated therapy with four commonality orientations (relationship, hope enhancing, awareness promotion and behavior regulation) is considered as an effective intervention in patients with scleroderma.