The effectiveness of mindfulness training on sexual self-efficacy in women with breast cancer

Subject Areas : Thoughts and Behavior in Clinical Psychology

sara Mohammadizade ¹ , Mohammad Moradi-joo ² , Salvi Shamsedini lort ³ , Zahra Jamshidifar ⁴

1 - دانشگاه آزاد واحد کیش
2 - مرکز تحقیقات سرطان دانشگاه شهید بهشتی
3 - داشنگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد رودهن، عضو باشگاه پژوهشگران جوان
4 - دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، دپارتمان روان شناسی بالینی، رودهن، ایران

Received: 2015-02-26 Accepted : 2015-02-26 Published : 2014-03-21

Keywords: Mindfulness, breast cancer, Sexual Self-efficacy,

Abstract :

The loss of the breast, in many cases means the loss of female identity and affects sexual function. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness training on sexual self-efficacy in women with breast cancer. For this purpose, during a quasi-experimental study 30 women with breast cancer (18 experimental and 12 control) were selected from available samples, at Shohada of tajrish Hospital in Tehran city. The samples were assigned to both experimental and control groups, randomly. The groups were tested before the intervention of sexual self-efficacy, then the experimental group received 8 sessions of 90 minutes of mindfulness training. After the completion of the study and  2 months after that the control group were tested with regards to sexual self-efficacy. The results of the analysis of covariance indicated that Mindfulness training has been effective on increasing the sexual self-efficacy of patients undergoing training, and this effect was sustainable in the follow-up examination. It seems that on the side of other interventions such as medication and medical interventions, Mindfulness can increase the sexual self-efficacy in these patients.