An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy on Marital Intimacy and Molecular Indices in Families of Women diagnosed with Breast Cancer

Determining the Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy on Marital Intimacy and Molecular Indices in Families of Women diagnosed with Breast Cancer

A randomized controlled clinical trial with parallel groups

30 couples who were diagnosed with breast cancer and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (15 couples each). Sample selection for this study would be to provide eligible patients admitted to the Breast Cancer Research Center of Tehran with brief information about the research plan, its goals, and the method of treatment. The levels of oxytocin and cortisol hormones in the two groups will be measured on the day before and after the intervention. Patients in the experimental group will receive weekly emotion-focused couple therapy sessions along with receiving routine medical care for 6 120-minute sessions weekly. However, patients in the control group will receive only routine medical care during this period. Patients in both groups will respond to the Marriage Intimacy Needs Questionnaire (2001) both at baseline and immediately after the intervention.

Inclusion criteria: Married female participants. Participants were sexually active and were less than 55 years of age. Participants had definitive diagnosis of stage two breast cancer. Participants had undergone mastectomy surgery. Minimum literacy. Normal listening ability. Written informed consent to attend therapy sessions. exclusion criteria: mental disorders that require urgent treatment, disruption of the normal course of treatment, lack of cooperation, and severe physical disability and unwillingness to continue to cooperate.

For first group, emotion-focused couple therapy and for the second group (control), no intervention will be performed.

Marital Intimacy; Molecular Indices

The block randomization method is performed by the statistical consultant as follows: randomization is performed in three groups: music therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and control: First, a list of eligible individuals is provided and coded. In block randomization, the number of participants in all groups will be very close together by making blocks of sequences so that the same number of participants are assigned to study groups within each group. We first code the groups in Latin letters as follows: A = music therapy, B = cognitive behavioral therapy, and C control group In this study with three groups A, B and C we create the following six groups and assign 1 to 6 each: ABC-ACB-BAC-BCA-CAB-CBA Then, using the random number table, we choose one of these blocks whenever the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 appear, and if the other number appears, consider null and go to the next choice. . In fact, we have obtained a random sequence of numbers with a random number table that we consider the order of assignment for each number. This way the number of people in the groups will be approximately equal.

Only part of the data, such as information about the main outcome or the like, can be shared.

Start of access period 6 months after printing results

The data will be available only to researchers working in academic and scientific institutions

Any type of analysis on the data delivered is permitted

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The request will be sent by email to: m.hedayati@iaukishint.ac.ir