Group positive psychotherapy treatment and its effects in female patients with fibromyalgia syndrome

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of group positive psychotherapy treatment in reducing the psychological problems experienced by patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome. The group positive psychotherapy treatment applied in the study was developed by taking into account the "Five Steps Therapy" method developed by Nossrat Peseschkian. Women diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome and treated with therapy were the subject of this study which investigated whether the therapy caused any change to their level of depression, anxiety and alexithymia level, anger and expression of anger, general self-efficacy, pain self-efficacy, coping with pain, quality of life, life satisfaction level and perceived health status, courtesy, and openness-honesty (secondary abilities) variables. And, if it caused a significant change, it was investigated whether these changes were permanent. The research was carried out using the pre-test-post-test, one of the quantitative research methods and techniques, and the matched design, which is one of the quasi-experimental models with experimental-control groups. The study group of the research consisted of 35 women who applied to Yenibosna Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Hospital for treatment, were diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome according to the criteria of the American Rheumatology Association, were between the ages of 18-65, living in Istanbul, could speak Turkish, and volunteered to participate in the study. 17 of the participants are in the experimental group and 18 are in the control group. The data used in the research were collected in 3 stages (pre-test, post-test, follow-up). After the pre-test applied to the participants, a group positive psychotherapy treatment session consisting of 120 minutes each was applied once a week for 12 weeks. After the application, the post-test was applied, and 12 weeks after the post-test, the follow-up test was applied. Since the research process coincided with a period when the COVID-19 epidemic was intense, the sessions and data collection process were conducted online. The data collected within the scope of the research were analyzed using the SSPS package program. The Mann Whitney U test was used to test the differentiation of the participants' pre-test scores in the experimental and control groups, and the Wilcoxon Marked Ranks test was used to test the differentiation of the post-test and follow-up test scores in the experimental and control groups. As a result of the analyzes applied to test the differentiation of the pre-test scores in the experimental and control groups, it was seen that the differences between the groups were not statistically significant. Within the scope of the research, 12 hypotheses were tested and 3 of these hypotheses were confirmed. The therapy applied caused a significant decrease in the depression scores (H1), health perception scores (H10) and kindness scores (H11) of the participants in the experimental group. When the results of the follow-up test performed 3 months after the therapy was completed and the results of the post-test were compared, it was observed that the benefit of the therapy continued. Based on these findings, it can be said that the group positive psychotherapy treatment developed within the scope of the research produces effective results in reducing depression, health perception and kindness scores of women diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome according to the criteria of the American Rheumatology Association, and the effect is permanent.