Comparing the effectiveness of cognitive approach based on mindfulness and EFT on distress tolerance and post-traumatic growth of breast cancer survivors

Researchers have investigated different treatment approaches in order to reduce the psychological effects of breast cancer. The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of the cognitive approach based on mindfulness and Emotion Focused Therapy on distress tolerance and post-traumatic growth of breast cancer survivors.

In a research of the type of experimental studies with a semi-experimental design, 45 women who recovered from breast cancer in Tehran were present, and they were assigned to three groups. Emotion Focused therapy was implemented during 10 sessions and cognitive therapy based on mindfulness during 8 sessions on women with cancer, but the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were collected through the post-traumatic growth questionnaire (Tadeschi and Calhoun, 1996) and the disturbance tolerance scale (Simmons and Ghahir, 2005) and were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance and spss22 software.

The findings showed that there is a significant difference between the average of the experimental and control groups in the variable of distress tolerance and post-traumatic growth (P<0.05), so that both treatments have an effect on distress tolerance and post-traumatic growth. The accident has a significant effect (P<0.05), but none of the treatments is superior to the other treatment (P<0.05).

According to the findings of the research, it can be concluded that both the cognitive approach based on the conscious mindfulness and emotion focused therapy can be effective in improving the psychological condition of women with cancer.