comparison of the effectiveness of existential – cognitive group therapy and mindfulness – based existential – cognitive on Demoralization and Experience of Pleasure in women with breast cancer

This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of cognitive- existential and mind- based cognitive- existential therapy on the fear of cancer recurrence and its components in women with breast cancer. The method of the present study is quasi-experimental and pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population of this study included all women with breast cancer referred to Dezful Cancer Treatment Center who were selected by the available sampling method. according to the inclusion criteria, 45 people were selected as a sample and randomly divided into three groups existential-cognitive group therapy, mindfulness-based existential-cognitive group therapy, and a control group was assigned. Used to collect data Demoralization Scale (Kissane et al., 2004) and Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (Gard et al.,  2006). The results of the multivariate analysis of covariance showed that there was a statistically significant difference between demoralization and pleasure experience in the experimental and control groups (P<0.001). Also, the results of the Bonferroni test showed that mindfulness– based existential-cognitive therapy further reduces the Demoralization in breast cancer survivors and increases the experience of pleasure in these people (P<0.001). As a result, by adding mindfulness exercises to existential-cognitive therapy, Demoralization can be further reduced and the  Experience of Pleasure can be increased.