Psychological Treatment for Pain Among Cancer Patients by Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy - Efficacy in both India and Iran

The aim of the present study is to find out the influence of rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) on painintensity among cancer patients in India and Iran. The study followed a quasi-experimental, pre-post test, carriedout with a sample of 88 cancer patients, aged 21-52 years, referred to the Baharat cancer hospital of Mysore inIndia and Shahidzade hospital of Behbahan in Iran. They were randomly assigned to the experimental (n=India21; Iran 22) and control (n=India 22; Iran 23) groups. Pain was measured with the McGill Pain Questionnaire-MPQ (1975), the intervention by REBT has given to the experimental group for 45 days (ten sessions) and atthe end of intervention, the pain of patients was again evaluated. Concerning to hypothesis of the study, twoindependent sample T test and three ways mixed ANOVA is used to analyze the data. Results showed that theexperimental group in post test had less pain than the control group, but there were no statistically significantdifferences between Indian and Iranian patients in pain perception. With respect the outcome of study, it hasrealized that REBT can be used in hospitals and other psychological clinics to reduce the pain of cancer patients.