The Effect of Relaxation Training on Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Breast Cancer

摘要

AIM: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of progressive muscle relaxation training on anxiety and depression in Turkish women with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy.METHOD: Data were collected between March 2005–2006. The sample of the study consisted of 27 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who had planned to be cured with adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients who met these study criteria were accepted to the research programme and assigned to one of two groups, either progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) group (n = 14) or control (n = 13) group sequentially. The effect of the progressive muscle relaxation training was measured at different stages of the treatment. A data collection form and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were used to collect the data. In our research, for statistical analysis of data, parametric and nonparametric tests were used according to data range. Values of p0.05).CONCLUSION: Consequently, it was determined that relaxation exercises have no any significant effect on the symptoms of anxiety and depression alone. Based upon these results it was suggested that anxiety and depression symptoms must be assessed again by using different intervention modalities with different research designs and instruments.