Comparison of the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy and Self-healing Therapy on the Quality of Life of Women with Bulimia Nervosa

Background & aim: Bulimia nervosa, as a common psychological disorder, negatively affects the lives of people with this disorder and reduces their quality of life. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and self-healing on quality of life in women with bulimia nervosa. Methods: This study was pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research with the control group. The statistical population of the study included all women with bulimia nervosa who had been referred to specialists and medical centers in Isfahan in 1398. 45 women were selected by purposive sampling and randomly placed in experimental and control groups. Data were collected via WHO Quality of Life questionnaire. Each of the experimental groups underwent 12 sessions of cognitive-behavioral group therapy, and self-healing group therapy, but the control group did not receive any training. Analysis of Mancova in SPSS-24 software was used to analyze the data. Results: Based on the chi-square test, no significant difference was observed in terms of age, education, and disease duration between the three groups (p<0.05). The results showed that the cognitive-behavioral and self-healing experimental groups were significantly different from the control group in all variables of quality of life (p<0.001). Also, self-healing therapy increased the psychological, physical, and environmental dimensions of quality of life more than cognitive-behavioral therapy (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to this study, cognitive-behavioral therapy and self-healing can be used to increase the quality of life of women with bulimia nervosa. However, self-healing treatment seems to be more effective than cognitive-behavioral therapy in this case.