The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Rejection Sensitivity and Resilience in Patients with Thalassemia: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Southeastern Iran

Abstract

Abstract Background Thalassemia is a genetic and chronic congenital disorder composed of physical problems that severely impair patients’ cognitive, psychological and social processes. The rehabilitation of patients is particularly important because they have a high rejection sensitivity and low resilience. The present study aimed to determine the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction counseling on rejection sensitivity and resilience in patients with thalassemia referring to a dedicated disease center in southeastern Iran. Materials and methods We conducted this randomized controlled trial study on 66 patients with thalassemia referring to the Kerman Thalassemia Center in southeastern Iran in 2022. Using convenience sampling and the stratified block randomization method, we divided the samples into two intervention (N = 33) and control (N = 33) groups. Patients in the intervention group received eight 60-minute online mindfulness-based stress reduction counseling sessions (one session per week) and completed the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, Adult Version (A-RSQ) and the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale before and after the intervention. We collected data using the SPSS 25 trial and descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation), Chi-Square test, Independent-samples t-test, Fisher's exact test, Paired t-test, the Wilcoxon U test and Mann Whitney. A significance level of 0.05 was considered. Results We found no significant difference in the mean scores of rejection sensitivity and resilience between the intervention (8.75 ± 4.86) and control (9.87 ± 5.16) groups before the intervention. Mean scores for rejection sensitivity and resilience were 10.23 ± 4.94 in the control group and 7.11 ± 4.13 in the intervention group after the intervention, showing a 1.56-point reduction in the rejection sensitivity score of the intervention group and a 0.37-point increase in the rejection sensitivity score of the control group, but the scores were not significantly different (p = 0.08). The mean resilience score in the control group was 63.69 ± 19.43, while it was 67.72 ± 17.98 in the intervention group before the intervention, but the mean resilience scores in the control and intervention groups were 58.06 ± 22.81 and 74.18 ± 17.46 after the intervention, respectively. The resilience score had a 6.64-point increase in the intervention group, while it had a 5.48-point reduction in the control group, so a significant difference was available between the two groups (p = 0.01). Conclusion Our results showed that in addition to other physical treatments, mindfulness-based stress reduction counseling was effective in increasing the resilience of patients with thalassemia.