Effectiveness of Online Compassion-Focused Group Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Chronic Fatigue Severity of Multiple Sclerosis in Female Patients

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (M.S) is the most common debilitating disease that also affects the physical, mental, and social functioning of patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of online compassion therapy on depression, anxiety and chronic fatigue severity in female patients with multiple sclerosis. Method: The present study was a pre-test, post-test applied and experimental study with a control group. The sample consisted of 30 patients with multiple sclerosis living in Shiraz in 2020 who were selected by convenience sampling method. They randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Participants were tested on the Depression, Anxiety, and Chronic Fatigue Scales, and an online compassion-based treatment plan was presented to the experimental group in 8 two hour sessions. Descriptive statistics and covariance test were used to analyze the data. Result: Patients showed a significant improvement in the severity of symptoms in all three variables. The results showed a significant difference in depression, anxiety and chronic fatigue severity scores between the groups at posttest (P 0.001). Conclusion: Online CFT can be used as an effective therapy to improve mental disorders and mental health of MS patients in case of evidence for proof of effectiveness of CFT. So, online compassion-focused group therapy can reduce the negative psychological consequences of people with multiple sclerosis by reducing negative emotions and increasing a person s attention to improving their condition.