Psycho-Rehabilitation Method (Dohsa-hou) and Quality of Life in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of psycho-rehabilitation (Dohsa-hou) on improving the quality of life of 4-12 year old children with cerebral palsy. Methods: The present research is a semi-experimental study with a pre-test - post-test design, follow-up and control group. The statistical population fully consists of children with cerebral palsy in Yazd. 30 male patients were selected using a convenience sampling method and were divided into the experiment and control groups. Before beginning treatment, parents filled out the quality of life questionnaire and at the end of the treatment period in the post-test and follow-up phase the same assessment was done. The treatment period in the experiment group was 12 sessions (three sessions per week) and the follow-up phase was done 50 days after the test. Results: The results obtained from the analysis of covariance showed that psychological rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy improves their quality of life and that this difference was persistent in the follow-up phase (P <0.001). Discussion: Since the rate of cerebral palsy is rising and the symptoms are wide, patients may have an increased need for rehabilitation in the future. Dohsa-hou as a psychological rehabilitation approach is an effective treatment to improve the quality of life of these patients.