Assessing the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management (CBSM) on Pain Perception of Cancer Patients

Abstract

Background: Disease-related cancer pain is a multidimensional phenomenon. Psychological factors that may alter pain perception in cancer patients have not been well studied. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral stress therapy on distress in patients with cancer. Patients and Methods: In a cross-sectional study of consecutive patients (32-70 years), progression of their disease was at levels 1 to 3, high cycle education, and 3 months of chemotherapy, of which 40 were randomly available to the study and allocated to two groups (20 in experimental and 20 in control groups). The instrument was a McGill pain questionnaire (1997). Data were analyzed using two methods of Kolmogorov-Smirnov inferential statistics and multivariate analysis of covariance using SPSS Ver.17. Results: Correlation analysis showed that the experimental group had a significant reduction in perception of pain, in the posttest after the experiment compared with the control group. Conclusion: The short-term cognitive-behavioral stress management program could reduce the perception of pain in cancer patients.

Keywords

• cognitive-behavioral, stress management, cancer, perception of pain