Study and Comparison the Effectiveness of Cognitive- Behavioral Therapy of Pain Management and its Computerized Version on Reduction of Pain Intensity and Anxiety in Children with Cancer

The research method of this study was experimental with pretest, posttest, follow-up and control group. The effectiveness of two cognitive-behavioral therapy of pain management and its computerized version were compared with control group. The sample consisted of 45 children with cancer who were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, then randomly divided into three groups of 15 subjects (two experimental and one control group). The first experimental group received pain management CBT for 6 weeks and the second experimental group received a computerized CBT pain management training program for 6 weeks, but the control group received no intervention, for ethical considerations, after the end of the experiment, the control group received two sessions of computerized cognitive-behavioral pain management training. After 6 weeks, each three groups were evaluated as post-test and finally after one month of follow-up.

The results showed that the level of anxiety and pain was significantly decreased in cognitive-behavioral therapy of pain management and its computerized version in comparison with pretest and control group (P <0.0001). These results significantly persisted after fallow up period (P <0.0001). The computerized cognitive-behavioral pain management training had a greater reduction in the pain variable than the cognitive-behavioral therapy of pain management, but this difference was not significant.