Comparison of the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy and Hope-Based Group Therapy on Pain Perception in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Background and Objec ti ve: In pa ti ents with mul ti ple sclerosis, pain is a common phenomenon and plays an important role in mental health and quality of life of these individuals. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the e ffi cacy of cogni ti ve behavioral group therapy and hope-based group therapy on percep ti on of pain in pa ti ents with MS. Materials and Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with pretest and post-test design and control group. 45 pa ti ents were randomly selected from MS pa ti ents with pain who referred to neurological and neurology specialists in Karaj, Iran , in the fi rst six months of 2017. The par ti cipants were assigned to three groups with 15 subjects (two interven ti on groups and one control group). Each interven ti on group was treated for 8 sessions and the control group did not receive cogni ti ve behavioral interven ti ons and hope-based therapy. Pain percep ti on was measured in pretest and pos tt est with Pain Ques ti onnaire (MPQ). Results: Independent results showed that both cogni ti ve-behavioral therapy and hope-based therapy had a signi fi cant e ff ect on pain relief in MS pa ti ents (P=0.05). Also, the e ff ect of cogni ti ve-behavioral therapy on emo ti onal pain was signi fi cantly di ff erent from that of hope-based therapy (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results indicated the importance of both methods, especially cogni ti ve behavioral therapy, in reducing pain percep ti on in pa ti ents with MS. Therefore, counselors and therapists can use both methods to reduce pain in these pa ti ents.