The Effect of Mindfulness Psych-Educational Group Intervention on Improving Sexual Function of Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Background: Chronic diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), as one of the hot topics in the literature, have frequently been associated with sexual dysfunction. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of mindfulness psycho educational group intervention on improving the sexual function of women with MS. Methods: To this end, 350 women with MS from Isfahan province, who had medical records in Kashani Hospital and Isfahan MS Center, were first screened out by the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), among whom the ones scored below 28 were clinically diagnosed with sexual dysfunction. Then 47 patients with sexual dysfunction were randomly assigned to experimental (N=24) and control (N=23) groups using the simple random sampling method. The experimental group received five sessions of Mindfulness-Based Group Psychotherapy; however, the control group received no treatment. The two groups were assessed by a pre-test, post-test, and two follow-ups (one and two months after the end of the intervention, respectively), and MANCOVA was used to analyze the data in SPSS software 16. Results: According to the results, mindfulness-based psycho educational group therapy was effective in improving the sexual function of women with MS in all the six domains (namely desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain) and the total FSFI score (p≤.05)). Conclusion: The findings revealed the effectiveness of psycho educational group intervention in improving the sexual function of women with MS. Accordingly, clinicians and therapists working with this group of women are recommended to include mindfulness in their interventions.

Keywords

• multiple sclerosis (ms)
• women
• mindfulness psycho educational group intervention
• sexual function