The effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on cancer fatigue and self-care behaviors of cancer patients

Cancer as a negative stressor has a serious impact on the physical and mental health of patients. This necessitates psychological interventions in these patients, so the present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on cancer fatigue and self-care behaviors of cancer patients. The method of the present study was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test according to its subject. The statistical population of the present study also included all patients referred to the non-governmental oncology center of Urmia in the period of April and May 2016. From the statistical population, a sample of 30 cancer patients (15 in the experimental group - 15 in the control group) was selected based on the input criteria by available sampling method and randomly assigned between the experimental and control groups. For data collection, Okoyama et al.chr('39')s (2000) cancer fatigue questionnaire and self-care behaviors questionnaire in researcher-made cancer patients were used. The experimental group experienced compassion-based therapy for 8 sessions of 90 minutes. Both groups then responded to the measurement tools after the sessions. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that the difference between the mean scores of fatigue due to cancer and self-care behaviors after compassion-focused treatment compared to the control group was significant (P ≥0/001). Compassion-based therapy reduced cancer-induced fatigue and increased self-care behaviors. It is recommended to use compassion-focused therapy to improve cancer fatigue and patientschr('39') self-care behaviors along with other interventions.