Multiple Skleroz’lu Hastalara Verilen Psikoeğitimin Stresle Baş Etme Tarzları, Psikiyatrik Belirtiler ve Yaşam Kalitesine Etkisi

Abstract

The research was conducted as an intervention study with a control-group design with pretest, post- test, and three months later follow-up design in order to evaluate the effect of psychoeducation given to MS patients on styles of coping with stress, psychiatric symptoms and quality of life. The sample of this study consisted of 89 MS patients who were registered to the Ankara Branch of the MS Society of Turkey and who agreed to participate in this study, 45 patients were randomly distributed to the intervention group and 44 patients were randomly assigned to the control group. Nine of the patients left out this study. 80 patients completed the study and 40 patients were in the control group and 40 patients were also in the control group. Psycho education program consisted of 120 minutes per a week and it totally continued eight weeks. This program was applied in four different intervention groups according to the content and objectives. No effects were given to the control group during the same period. Data gathered by the help of applying the introductory information form, The Ways of Coping Inventory, Brief Symptom Inventory, and Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life Scale-54 and also pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Two-way ANOVA was used for repeated measures in the evaluation of data, and further analysis was also done by Bonferroni test. As a result of the research, the approaches of optimistic, self-confident and social support seeking from the way of coping with the stress of the patients in the intervention group increased statistically significantly compared to before psychoeducation, the unconfident and submissive approach decreased significantly (p <0.05). While the mean scores of anxiety, depression and somatization decreased statistically from the psychiatric symptoms, there was no significant change in the symptoms of negative self and hostility (p <0.05). Also, physical and mental health totals, which are subscales of psycho educational quality of life of the intervention group, increased statistically significantly (p <0.05).In the intervention group, these effects continued in the follow-up measurement applied 3 months after the psycho education. There was no statistically significant change in all subscales in the control group in the same period. According to these findings, it is suggested that such psycho education programs should be commonly used in order to effectively cope with the stress, improve their mental health and increase the quality of life for MS patients.