Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract

Background & Objectives: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, causing myelin destruction and damage to the axons of the brain and spinal cord. The involvement of the white and gray matter of the brain results in clinical signs and symptoms that lead to physical impairment, disability, and cognitive and psychological changes. MS is autoimmune in nature. This damage disrupts the ability of parts of the nervous system to transmit signals, resulting in a wide range of signs and symptoms, including physical, mental, and sometimes psychiatric problems. The prevalence of MS in women is two to three times higher than in men. Multiple sclerosis leads to disability and various sensory and motor disorders in the patient. It is associated with problems such as severity and frequency of disease relapse, low perceived social support, ineffective coping strategies, reduced life expectancy, emotional and economic problems, and mental disorders. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of life therapy on learned helplessness and psychological security of women with multiple sclerosis.
Methods: This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design with a 3-month follow-up, along with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all women with multiple sclerosis affiliated with the Mazandaran MS Association who registered between October 2022 and September 2023 and had received an MS diagnosis from a specialist. Among them, 24 people were selected using purposive sampling according to the inclusion criteria and randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group (12 people in each group). The inclusion criteria for the study subjects were as follows: personal consent to participate in the study, a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis confirmed by a neurologist, and an age between 30 and 50 years. The exclusion criteria for the subjects were absence of more than two sessions during the training and recurrence of the disease during the training period. The experimental group members were exposed to eight 90-minute sessions of a group life therapy program (Hassan Zadeh, 2022), and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were collected using the learned helplessness questionnaire (Quinless & Nelson, 1988) and the mental security inventory (Maslow et al., 1952) in three stages: before the intervention, after the intervention, and three months after the intervention. After data collection, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. At the descriptive level, means and standard deviations, as well as graphs, were used. At the inferential level, analysis of variance with repeated measures and a Bonferroni post hoc test were employed. The research data were analyzed by SPSS software version 26. The significance level was set at 0.05.
Results: The results showed that the effect of group on the variables of learned helplessness (p = 0.035) and psychological security (p=0.043), as well as the interaction effect of time and group on the variables of learned helplessness (p < 0.001) and psychological security (p<0.001), was significant. In the variable of learned helplessness in the experimental group (life therapy), the difference between the mean scores of the pretest and posttest (p<0.001) and follow-up (p<0.001) was significant. Additionally, in the variable of psychological security in the experimental group (life therapy), the difference between the mean scores of the pretest and posttest (p<0.001) and follow-up (p=0.002) was significant. In addition, the difference between the mean posttest and follow-up scores in the variables of learned helplessness (p=0.002) and psychological security (p=0.022) was significant, indicating that the effect of life therapy on these variables was sustained during the 3-month follow-up period.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the use of non-pharmacological life therapy intervention is effective in reducing learned helplessness and increasing psychological security in women with multiple sclerosis, and improves their psychological problems. Therefore, the use of a life therapy program in treatment and counseling centers for women with multiple sclerosis is recommended.