فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background and Objective: Anxiety is one of the common psychological problems among children with cancer. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based intervention and pharmacotherapy in managing anxiety disorders in children with cancer. Materials and Methods: This semi-experimental study utilized a two-group pretest-posttest design. The study population included all children with cancer (aged 5 to 12 years) admitted to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran in 2023. A total of 32 children were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two groups: pharmacotherapy (n=16) and mindfulness-based intervention (n=16). Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (1998). The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results:The findings indicated that the anxiety scores of participants in both the pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based intervention groups significantly decreased after receiving the respective interventions (P < 0.001). Furthermore, a comparison of the effectiveness of the two interventions revealed that the mean scores for separation anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder showed greater reductions in the pharmacotherapy group, while generalized anxiety demonstrated a more pronounced reduction in the mindfulness-based intervention group. Conclusion:Both pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based intervention contribute to the improvement of anxiety disorders in children with cancer. However, pharmacotherapy is more effective in reducing separation anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, while mindfulness-based intervention is more effective in alleviating generalized anxiety.