The efficacy of group reality therapy on reducing stress, anxiety and depression in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Introduction: One of the main problems of chronic patients, especially patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), is negative emotion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of group reality therapy in reducing stress, anxiety and depression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: A total of 40 patients with MS at the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Iran were selected and randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control (N=20 subjects). All participants before and after the intervention to scale DASS-21 responded. The experimental group received eight sessions of reality therapy and the control group received no intervention. The data of pre-test and post-test were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance). Results: Findings showed a significant reduction in the mean of the three variables of stress (F (1.38) = 81.37; p < 0.01) anxiety (F (1.38) = 81.89; p < 0.01) and depression (F (1.38) = 82.56; P < 0.01) in the experimental group after the intervention (p < 0.05) Conclusion: in this study group reality therapy significantly reduces stress, anxiety and depression in the intervention group compared with the control group. The reality therapy can be an effective therapy in the treatment of stress, anxiety and depression in patients with MS and as an adjunct to other therapies.