فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

AIM AND BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a long‑course incurable disease as well as anunknown prognosis causing patients to experience a variety of psychological outcomes. Meanwhile,inability to control the disease‑related uncertainty leads to the use of maladaptive coping strategies,causing more psychological distress. This study investigated the effectiveness of intervention focusedon the intolerance of uncertainty on psychological distress and quality of life in MS patients.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research adopted a true experimental design. All phases of thestudy were conducted online due to the COVID‑19 pandemic during 2021 in Tehran. The statisticalpopulation of the study was purposefully selected from among MS patients and was randomly assignedto three groups of 20: IU intervention and two control groups (cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)and treatment as usual (TAU) groups). The study included pre‑test, post‑test, and follow‑up stages.The outcome measures of the study included the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS‑21) aswell as Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life‑54 (MSQoL‑54). Mixed analysis of variance was used toanalyze the data.RESULTS: The results showed that IU intervention compared to CBT, is more effective onpsychological distress (depression P = 0.006, anxiety P = 0.01, and stress P = 0.01) and quality oflife (P = 0.001) in MS patients. Nonetheless, IU‑focused intervention is more effective than TAU onpsychological distress (depression P = 0.0001, anxiety P = 0.0001, stress P = 0.0001) as well asquality of life (P = 0.0001) in these patients.CONCLUSIONS: IU‑based intervention can reduce psychological distress and improve quality oflife of MS patients. Accepting uncertainty can reduce the anxiety and stress of MS patients whichcan increase the quality of life of these patients.