Introduction: Recently, special attention has been paid to patients with cancer in order to promote their mental health. Evidences suggest that psychological training has positive effect on reduction of cancer consequences. The aim of the present research was to determine the efficacy of stress inoculation training on the improvement of dysfunctional attitudes and social problem solving skills in women with breast cancer.
Methods: This is a pilot study in which pre-test and post-test follow-up control was used. Participation included all women who were newly diagnosed with breast cancer and referred to two clinical centers in Mashhad, Iran in 2010 and they were spending their first chemotherapy period. 30 women among newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The therapeutic technique used for the experimental group was stress inoculation training. For data collection, questionnaires of Social Problem-Solving Inventory and Dysfunction Attitude Scale were used. Data were analyzed by using repeated measures analysis of variance and follow-up tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The mean±SD age of the subjects was 7.03±47.33 in the experimental group and 5.75±41.27 in the control group. A Repeated Measure of Analysis of Variance showed that stress inoculation training was effective in improvement of dysfunction attitude and social problem-solving skills of patients with breast cancer. In other words, the average scores of dysfunction attitude, negative orientations, and styles of impulsive/avoidant of subjects were significantly lower in the experimental group at post-test and follow-up test compared to the control group (p<0.001), while scores of positive orientation and subjects' rational style of problem-solving were increased in the experimental group than the control group at post-test and follow-up test.
Conclusion: Stress inoculation training can be effective in reduction of dysfunctional attitudes and enhancement of social problem -solving skills in patients with breast cancer.