The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy in anxiety and self-esteem in patients with multiple sclerosis

Introduction: The present study was conducted aimed at investigating the effectiveness of cognitivebehavioral group therapy in anxiety and selfesteem in patients with multiple sclerosis. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial ‎with a pretest-posttest and ‎control group design, 20 multiple sclerosis patients were selected through convenience sampling method from the Multiple Sclerosis Association of Mashhad in 2016 and were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received cognitivebehavioral group therapy for 2 hours per week for 10 weeks, but the control group received no treatment. In the pretest and posttest, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and The CooperSmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI) were implemented for both groups. Data analysis was performed using the analysis of covariance and t-test. Results:The results demonstrated that cognitivebehavioral group therapy significantly leads to reduced anxiety (P 0.001) and enhanced overall selfesteem (P 0.001), general self-esteem (P=0.002), family selfesteem (P=0.005) and occupationalacademic self-esteem (P=0.003) compared to the control group. But no significant difference was observed in the scores of social self-esteem (P=0.388). Conclusion: Cognitive-behavioral group therapy can reduce anxiety and increase selfesteem of multiple sclerosis patients.