Background: Breast cancer patients experience high levels of distress due to fear of recurrence, worry about mortality and outcomes, anxiety related to treatment, as well as experiencing physical and financial problems. One of the intervention methods used for psychological support of cancer patients is mindfulness-based treatments. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the effect of mindfulness training on emotional regulation and distress tolerance in women with breast cancer.
Methods: The present interventional study t was conducted on breast cancer patients in Birjand in 2023. this study recruited 30 subjects in two control and intervention groups (15 people in each group) using the convenience sampling method. Mindfulness training took place in the intervention group for eight weeks (one session per week and one to one and a half hour per session). The Gross and John (2003) emotion regulation questionnaire and the Simmons and Gaher (2005) emotional distress tolerance questionnaire were used to collect information. Data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 26) using independent t-tests and paired t-tests at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: The mean age scores of patients in the control and intervention groups were 46.9±12.0 and 45.8±11.7 years, respectively, and no significant difference was observed between the two groups (P=0.795). The results of the present study demonstrated that after the mindfulness-based interventions, subjects in the intervention group obtained higher scores than the control group, which was statistically significant (58.1±6.2 vs. 50.1±7.3; p=0.003). Nonetheless, these interventions did not display a significant effect on distress tolerance scores in both control and intervention groups (6.4±33.8 vs. 6.6±31.5; P=0.334).
Conclusions: As evidenced by the results of the present study, the intervention based on mindfulness has significant effects on the regulation of emotions in patients with breast cancer; therefore, the implementation of educational programs based on mindfulness can be of great help in reducing the emotions of patients with breast cancer.
