Aim: Pain intensity and catastrophizing along with psychological distress is an important problem in patients with multiple sclerosis. The aim of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy based on Islamic-Iranian approaches on pain intensity, pain catastrophizing and psychological distress in women with multiple sclerosis.
Method: This study was a quasi-experimental pretest - posttest with control group. The study population was consisted of all women with multiple sclerosis who were members of Iran multiple sclerosis Society at 2019. The sample consisted of 30 (15 for each group) women with multiple sclerosis that were selected by as a voluntary and randomly recruits to each of groups. Then, the participants in the experimental group participated in 8 sessions of 90 min of mindfulness therapy based on Islamic-Iranian approaches, while the control group did not receive any therapy. Instruments for gathering data were West Haven-Yale Multidimensional Pain Inventory (1995), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (1995) and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (2003). Then, the data were analyzed using SPSS.v21 software and statistical tests such as MANCOVA and ANCOVA.
Results: The results of ANCOVA indicate that the mindfulness therapy based on Islamic-Iranian approaches had significant impact on pain intensity (F=19.17, P=0.000) and psychological distress (F=42.81, P=0.000). Furthermore, results of MANCOVA showed that mindfulness therapy based on Islamic-Iranian approaches had significant impact on pain catastrophizing (F=34.77, P=0.000) and subscales of rumination (F=208.77, P=0.000) and magnification (F=5.20, P=0.000).
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, mindfulness therapy based on Islamic-Iranian approaches decreases pain intensity, pain catastrophizing and psychological distress in women with multiple sclerosis and represents new horizons in clinical interventions and thus could be used as an effective interventional method.  So, it seems that this intervention is an applicable treatment for women with multiple sclerosis.