The Effectiveness of Psychodynamic Group Therapy on the Components of the Sense of Coherence Among Patients with Colon Cancer

Abstract

Background: Cancer causes several social and psychological problems and responses, such as denial, anger, and feelings of guilt, which eventually lead to the patient’s psychological coherence collapse. Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of psychodynamic group therapy on the components of the sense of coherence (SOC) among patients with colon cancer. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted using a pretest-posttest design with a control group and follow-up on all patients with colon cancer treated at the Poursina-Hakim Treatment Center in Isfahan, Iran, during the spring of 2022. Then, 28 patients were selected using convenient sampling and divided randomly into two 14-member groups: the psychodynamic therapy group (receiving 12 treatment 100-minute sessions) and the control group. The participants completed the Sense of Coherence (SOC) Scale in three pretest, posttest, and follow-up stages. The research data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and the Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS software version 26. Results: The mean ± SD of the posttest score of comprehensibility in the psychodynamic therapy group was 40.57 ± 7.20, which was different from the pretest 32.42 ± 5.98. Moreover, the mean ± SD of the posttest score of meaningfulness in the psychodynamic therapy group was 37.57 ± 7.53, which was also different from the pretest 31.14 ± 6.16. Psychodynamic therapy effectively enhanced comprehensibility (P = 0.001) and meaningfulness of life (P = 0.032) among patients with colon cancer. The therapeutic effect remained stable over time only in the comprehensibility component. The stability of the intervention effects on meaningfulness was not observed over time. Additionally, the therapeutic effect on the manageability component was not significant. Conclusions: Based on these results, psychodynamic therapy could affect the patients’ comprehension of the current circumstances and the meaningfulness of life and help their psychological adaptation.