Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Relaxation on Executive Functions in People with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

The present study aims to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction and relaxation in patients with Multiple Sclerosis )MS(.

This is a quasi- experimental study with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The statistical population included all patients with MS who referred to MS association of Mazandaran and had a medical record between 2019 and 2020 years. 45 subjects have been selected by purposive sampling method, randomly were assigned to three groups (a control and two experimental groups). Then, the subjects of the first and second experimental groups received mindfulness-based stress reduction and relaxation in 8 sessions, respectively. The Executive Functions Scale (Nejati, 2013) was used as a research tool in two stages: before and after education for all three groups (two experimental groups and a control group).

In the end, the findings of the analysis of Covariance and LSD test showed that both of the implemented therapeutic approaches mindfulness-based stress reduction and relaxation have led to an improvement in the executive functions of patients with MS (p<0.05). also, have shown that mindfulness-based stress reduction has been more impactful on executive functions than relaxation.

According to the findings of the present study, in the field of treatment and counseling of patients with MS, mindfulness-based stress reduction and relaxation seems to be very effective and promising.