RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Researches mainly focus on patients who suffer from cancer. Families and parents have been neglected in these researches although they experience levels of stress, depression and anxiety. This research aims at studying the effectiveness of Hope Therapy based on group therapy on hope and depression of mothers with children suffering from cancer in Aliasghar Children's Hospital, Tehran (2010). METHODS: In this applied and semi-experimental research, 20 mothers were selected based on Snyder Hope Scale and Beck Depression Inventory (pre-test). They were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. Intervention based on Hope Therapy protocol was executed on the experimental group for eight weeks (eight sessions, each lasted for 2 hours). Afterwards, post-test was performed for both groups. After eight weeks, the experimental group completed questionnaires and the follow up phase. RESULTS: Results demonstrated that Hope Therapy increases hope (p<0.05), and decreases depression in mothers of children with cancer (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Covariance analysis indicated that Hope Therapy significantly decreases depression and increases hope of mothers whose children suffer from cancer. Follow up results showed no significant changes in hope of this group of mothers in the two months after post-test, but depression was decreased significantly during this period. It was concluded that effectiveness of Hope Therapy may be continued during the follow up phase.