Taḥqīqāt-i ̒Ulūm-i Raftārī (Dec 2016)
Effects of Religious Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Stress Coping Strategies and Obsession Score of Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder with Religious Content
Abstract
Aim and Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is kind of anxiety disorder that can manifest in religious practices in religious individuals. Stress plays a role in the worsening of the symptoms of OCD. Appropriate coping strategies can reduce the effects of this factor on the patient. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of religious cognitive behavioral therapy (RCBT) on stress coping strategies in patients with OCD with religious content. Methods and Materials: This randomized clinical trial (non-pharmacological methods) was conducted with a before-after the intervention design. The subjects received psychotherapy in 10 sessions (1.5 hour session weekly). A psychiatrist and a clergyman, who was familiar with fiqh and the scientific aspects of OCD, managed the meetings. A Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score of higher than 17 was the primary inclusion criteria. Before the intervention and at the end of the intervention (10 th session), a clinical psychologist completed a demographic characteristic questionnaire, and the Y-BOCS and Coping Scale-Revised (CS-R). The collected data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman correlation coefficient in SPSS software. Findings: The average Y-BOCS score of the 15 patients changed from 29.39 ± 6.00 before the intervention to 24.1 ± 5.6 after the intervention (P = 0.012). The average CS-R score of the subjects changed from 36.5 ± 12.9 before the intervention to 35.3 ± 12.0 after the intervention (P = 0.442). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that CBT with a religious approach can have a significant impact on obsession in individuals with OCD, but these meetings did not affect the stress coping strategies of these patients.
