Background: Cancer leads to fear and anxiety and reduces mental health in patients soon after its diagnosis. Hence, it is imperative to examine therapeutic steps toward promoting the psychological conditions of these patients. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy (PPT) on the psychological well-being and hope of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods: The study was a single-blind clinical trial with a pretest-posttest design with experimental and control groups. The statistical population included all patients referring to Taleghani Hospital of Tehran in 2020. Thirty patients were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group learned PPT in six sessions held once a week and the control group received no intervention. Demographic forms, Ryff's psychological well-being scale (RPWBS-18), and Snyder’s hope scale (SHS-12) were used to collect data, which were analyzed by the Chi-square and ANCOVA tests run in the SPSS-20 software.
Results: The results showed that PPT enhanced psychological well-being (F = 9.29) and hope (F = 8.28) among patients with cancer (P<0.01). Moreover, the effect size of the PPT was 29% for psychological well-being and 27% for hope.
Conclusion: The PPT is effective in promoting the psychological health of cancer patients. Thus, this cost-effective therapy can be used in healthcare centers to promote the psychological health of these patients.