Abstract:

Background and Aim: The aim of the present study is to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Materials and Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental study, consisting of 20 women with rheumatoid arthritis that purposive sampling method was selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Both groups before the start of session completed in one session the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). The experimental group participated in eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral group therapy. In the end, both groups again completed the questionnaire. In addition, the analysis of data was used multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).

Results: The findings showed that cognitive-behavioral group therapy caused a significant increase in mean quality of life scores in the experimental group compared with the control group.

‍Conclusion: These findings indicated that cognitive-behavioral group therapy can be effective in enhancing the quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.