Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy on Cancer related Fatigue and Self-care Behaviors in Patients with Breast Cancer

Cancer is associated with psychological pressure and negative emotions. Therefore, identification and application of psychological therapies can be effective in the prevention and improvement of psychological pressure and problems in the patients with cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on cancer-related fatigue and self-care behaviors in patients with breast cancer. 

This was a pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental study with a control group, and its statistical population included all women with breast cancer referring to nongovernmental oncology center of Urmia in 2020. 30 women with breast cancer (15 in the experimental group - 15 in the control group) were selected by convenient sampling method. Our inclusion criteria included female patients with breast cancer, , minimum age 40 and maximum age 60 years, in the phase 1 and 2 of the disease, undergoing chemotherapy, and disease duration of at least 6 months and having diploma as minimum certificate in education. The patients randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Okoyama Cancer Fatigue Questionnaire (2000) and researcher-made self-care behaviors questionnaire were used to collect data. The experimental group received 12 sessions of Leahy's emotional schema therapy (2002). Every session lasted 90 minutes. Data analysis was performed using multivariate covariance test.

The mean age of the participants was (56.36) with standard deviation (8.09). The results of multivariate covariance analysis showed that the mean scores of cancer-related fatigue and self-care behaviors after implementation of emotional schema therapy were significantly different in the experimental group compared to those in the control group. This means that emotional schema therapy reduced cancer-related fatigue and improved self-care behaviors.

  According to the results of this study, emotional schema therapy is effective in reducing cancer-related fatigue and improvement of self-care behaviors in the women with breast cancer.