The effect of theater therapy on general health of infertile women

Infertility with a wide range of psychological disorders including decreased quality of life, self-esteem, sexual, emotional and social satisfaction, increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression, anger, low self-esteem, inadequacy, sexual dysfunction, and associated marital problems. Art therapy is one of the methods that can be used to treat mental health problems. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of theater therapy on general health of infertile women.

This study is a randomized clinical trial with control group. To select the sample size from health centers of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Samen center was selected and available among 30 primary infertile women aged 18-49 years from October to December 2016 and randomly assigned in two Experimental group (15) and control (15) were assigned. The research tool was Goldberg and Hiller General Health Questionnaire which was completed by two groups. The experimental group performed 8 sessions of theatrical therapy and then after the sessions the questionnaire was again administered to the two groups. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data and was calculated by SPSS software.

Considering that in the General Health Questionnaire the high scores of the three subscales of physical symptoms, anxiety and sleep disorder and severe depression and the low score of social dysfunction subscale indicate disease, the data of the experimental group mean in some subscales. The first scales decreased (11.3 / 10.3, 14.7) and increased in the social dysfunction subscale which may indicate the potential impact of an independent variable (theater therapy) on public health. Persons in the experimental group (infertile women). Whereas in the control group the averages increased in the first three subscales (14.4, 14, 13.5) and decreased in the social dysfunction subscale . The results of multivariate analysis of covariance (p <0.05) showed that the main hypothesis of our research was that the effect of theater therapy on general health of infertile women was significant.

Theater therapy is an appropriate way to increase the general health of infertile women and reduce physical symptoms, anxiety and sleep disorders and social dysfunction and severe depression.