Revista Electrónica Dr. Zoilo E. Marinello Vidaurreta (Jan 2016)
Combined use of focalized meditation and group psychological intervention in patients with terminal chronic renal failure
Abstract
Background: chronic renal failure is within the first 35 death causes in the country within the last five years.Objective: to determine the effectiveness of the combined use of the group psychological intervention with the focalized meditation (FM) in the psychological rehabilitation of patients suffering from terminal chronic renal failure who underwent hemodialysis treatment in “Juan Bruno Zayas” General Hospital in Santiago de Cuba from January to June, 2014.Methods: a pre-test, post-test and control group intervention was carried out. The study sample was divided into three groups: one for the group psychological intervention (GPI), another one for the focalized meditation FM) and the other one for the combined use of them both. The research process had three stages: the diagnostic phase with the use of: interview, observation, state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), Beck Diagnostic Inventory (BDI), and coping ways questionnaire; the intervention, where treatment was imposed with six sessions of group psychological intervention to a group, eight sessions of focalized meditation to another one and the combination of them both to the other one; and the last phase, which was the post-intervention one, was carried out to evaluate the changes of the impaired adjustment and coping with emotional states, applying the same diagnostic techniques.Results: after the application of the therapeutic modalities, the results were: in the groups treated with the GPI and FM separately, the 80 % of the subjects reduced their anxiety levels; meanwhile, with the combination of the techniques, improvement was for the 100 % of the patients. The variable depression had a similar behavior. As for the coping styles: in the GPI group, 80 % of the subjects got active coping styles and the 20 % got mixed ones; in the FM group, the 40 % showed active styles, another 40 % passive styles, and 20 % got mixed ones; in the group with the combined treatment, the results were the same as in the GPI group.Conclusions: there was no significant evidence that the group psychological intervention combined with the focalized meditation was more effective than the group psychological intervention by itself.
