Effectiveness of Online Existential Therapy on Attitude toward Life and Perplexities related to Death in Recovered Patients of Covid-19

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of online existential psychotherapy on attitudes toward life and death-related Perplexities in in Recovered Patients of COVID-19. The research method was a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test and control groups. The statistical population in this study included all recovered patients of COVID-19 in 2020 in Urmia, Iran. A sample of 30 people was selected by convenience sampling method and placed in experimental and control groups (N = 15 each). The experimental group received ten 90-minute sessions of online existential group psychotherapy, whereas the control group received no intervention. The Life Attitude questionnaire (Reker, 1992), Death Depression Scale (Templer et al., 1990) and Death Obsession Scale (Abdel-Khalek, 1998) were used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed using single-factor analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results of this study showed that the mean of life attitude score in the experimental group significantly was increased after the existential psychotherapy intervention in comparison with the control group (P< 0/001) and the mean of death depression and death obsession were decreased (P< 0/001). Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that existential psychotherapy can improve attitudes toward life and reduce the degree of perplexities related to death in recovered patients of Covid 19.

Keywords

• attitudes toward life
• perplexities related to death (death depression and death obsession)
• existential therapy
• recovered patients of covid-19