Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Clinical Symptoms in Females With Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background: Cancer is one of the most serious chronic diseases and risk factors for population health. Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in females. Today, some researchers in the field of clinical psychology by the implementation of psychosocial interventions sought to examine these effects on psychopathology in patients with breast cancer. Objectives: The present study aimed to assess the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on the improvement of cognitive emotion regulation and decrease of clinical symptoms in females with breast cancer. Methods: Sixteen females with breast cancer who referred to radiation oncology centers of Mashhad, Iran, were selected and randomly assigned (with Graph Pad software) into two groups of eight as intervention and control groups .The participants in the pretest, posttest and follow-up (four months) were examined by cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (CERQ-P) and depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21). Intervention group received eight sessions of two hours (one day per week) of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and controls were placed on a waiting list. Data were analyzed by SPSS using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: The intervention group showed a significant reduction in the rate of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. But no significant differences were observed in the increase of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and decrease of clinical symptoms between the two intervention and control groups. Conclusions: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be effective to reduce maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies.