Effectiveness of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy on the Meaning of Life and Death Anxiety of Bereaved Mothers

Loss is one of the most difficult and stressful events that a person can experience, and losing a child is the most difficult. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on the meaning of life and death anxiety of bereaved mothers..

The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population was all women aged 30 to 50 who lost a child due to suicide, who referred to Imam Reza and Sina Hospitals in Tabriz in 2023. A number of 30 people were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned into two equal groups. The experimental group received intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy during 8 sessions. The control group did not receive any treatment. The research tools were the Meaning of Life Questionnaire by Steger and the Death Anxiety Scale by Templer. Data were analyzed by two-way analysis of variance with repeated measurements and Bonferroni's post hoc test.

In comparison to the control group, intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy increased the meaning of life of bereaved mothers in the post-test (p<0.001) and decreased their death anxiety (p<0.001). The treatment effect was permanent in the follow-up phase on the meaning of life (p<0.001) and death anxiety (p<0.001) variables. The effect of this treatment on the meaning of life and death anxiety in the post-test and follow-up stages was similar.

It seems that intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy improves the meaning of life and reduces the death anxiety of bereaved mothers. Therefore, it can probably be a useful treatment to reduce psychological problems and create a meaning for life in bereaved mothers.