A study on the effectiveness of group counseling based on Lazarus multimodal approach with relapsing/remitting MS patients on the improvement of mental health & social support of patients

The purpose of the present study was investigation of the effectiveness of group counseling based on Lazarus multimodal approach with relapse-remitting MS patients on improvement of patients' mental health and social support. The research design in this study was pre-test, post-test qui-experimental method with control group. The statistical population of this research was included relapse-remitting MS patients of 20-35 years old referring to Iranian MS Society who resided in Tehran. Sampling was done by selecting 50 volunteer patients who answered to MHI and MSSS scales of MSQLI inventory, consequently, 24 subjects with the lowest level of mental health and social support were selected. They were randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control. Experimental group attended 10 sessions of group counseling based on Lazarus multimodal approach that lasted nearly 75-90 minutes and hold once a week. Collecting data were analyzed by using "t" test. The finding of research indicated that intervention was effective on improvement of "mental health" and "social support" increased in post-test of experimental group (p