impact of an existentialspiritual intervention compared with a cognitivebehavioral therapy on quality of life and meaning in life among women with multiple sclerosis

Objective: multiple sclerosis (ms) is a chronic neurological disease that could aggressively affect patients’ quality of life in most instances. this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of an existentialspiritual psychotherapy with a cognitivebehavioral therapy on quality of life and meaning in life in women with multiple sclerosis.method: a convenience sample of 43 women with multiple sclerosis participated in this quasiexperimental study. they were randomly assigned into 3 groups: an existentialspiritual intervention, a cognitivebehavioral intervention, and the control group. participants were assessed for outcome measures (quality of life and meaning in life) at 3 points in time: pretest, posttest, and 5months followup. the multiple sclerosis quality of life54 (msqol54) and the meaning in life questionnaires (mlq) were used as outcome measures. to compare outcomes among the study groups, repeated measures analysis of variance was performed.results: the results showed that while no difference was observed for the control group, scores for meaning in life improved significantly for existentialspiritual intervention and cognitivebehavioral therapy (p = 0.027, p = 0.039). also, both mental (p < 0.001, p = 0.014) and physical (p = 0.001, p = 0.013) health dimensions of quality of life increased significantly in the 2 intervention groups. however, the results indicated that women in the existentialspiritual intervention group showed greater improvement in some aspects of meaning in life (search for meaning) and quality of life (role physical and role emotional, pain and energy) compared to women in the cognitivebehavioral intervention group. however, the latter group showed better improvements on 2 subscales (physical function and health distress).conclusion: both existentialspiritual and cognitivebehavioral interventions can improve quality of life and meaning in life among women with multiple sclerosis. however, the findings suggest that although both interventions were effective, the existentialspiritual intervention resulted in more positive improvements in some aspects of meaning in life and quality of life.