Effectiveness of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy on Anxiety, Marital Adjustment, and Quality of Sexual Life in Women With Vaginismus

Najafizadeh, Banafshe; Emadian, Seyede Olia; Abbasi, Ghodratallah

Volume 12 - Articles-1401 MEJDS (2022) 12: 104 | Back to browse issues page

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Najafizadeh B, Emadian S O, Abbasi G. Effectiveness of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy on Anxiety, Marital Adjustment, and Quality of Sexual Life in Women With Vaginismus. MEJDS 2022; 12 :104-104
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-2160-en.html

Effectiveness of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy on Anxiety, Marital Adjustment, and Quality of Sexual Life in Women With Vaginismus

Banafshe Najafizadeh¹

, Seyede Olia Emadian ^*¹

, Ghodratallah Abbasi¹

1- Department of Psychology, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University

Abstract: (1322 Views)

Background & Objectives: Sexual behavior is a response to a biological motivation, which is essential for the survival of the offspring. One of the main issues in sexual relations that can cause many complications in the marital relationship is the existence of disorders in the natural cycle of sexual function (normal sexual behavior) of the couples, especially women. Vaginismus is one of the most severe sexual dysfunctions in women, which has many psychological and social effects on the individual and the family. Anxiety diseases are seen with high prevalence in people with sexual perversion. In addition to anxiety, marital adjustment and satisfaction with sexual life in vaginismus sufferers are among the variables that are usually affected. Marital adjustment is a process that occurs throughout life and refers to the characteristics of harmonious marital relationships and having good performance in marriage. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy on anxiety, marital adjustment and quality of sexuality life in women with vaginismus.
Methods: The research method was quasi–experimental with a pretest–posttest design and a control group. The study population included all women with vaginismus who were referred to counseling and psychotherapy clinics in Tehran between July and September 2019. The Sampling method was purposive (based on the research entering criteria). The sample size for each group was 10. The research data were collected using The Sexual Quality of Life–Female (SQOL–F) Questionnaire (Symonds et al., 2005), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) (Beck et al., 1988) and Marital Adjustment Scale (Apt & Hurlbert, 1992). The inclusion criteria were as follows: age between 18 and 45 years, suffering from vaginismus disorder confirmed by examining the medical record, not suffering from acute mental disorders or specific physical problems, not receiving drug therapy or psychological treatments during the last month before treatment sessions. The exclusion criteria were as follows: absence of more than two sessions, the patient's lack of interest or dissatisfaction with continuing the treatment, realizing disorder or acute illness in meetings, and being divorced. The experimental group received 12 45–min sessions of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, and the control group did not receive any psychological intervention during this period. The study data were collected from both groups before and after the intervention. To analyze the data in SPSS version 25, descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, t test comparing the averages of two independent groups and multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) were used. The level of significance in this research was considered 0.05.
Results: The results showed that the Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy improved marital adjustment (p<0.001) and quality of sexual life (p<0.001) of the experimental group members and did not make a significant difference in anxiety between the two groups (p=0.352). Also, based on the effect size index, 59% and 47% of the changes in the scores of the marital adjustment and quality of sexual life of the two groups were due to the application of the independent variable.
Conclusion: The results of this study show that Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy has a positive effect on marital adjustment and quality of sexual life in women with vaginismus. Because of saving time and money, and ease of training compared to classical approaches to Psychoanalysis, it is recommended that this therapy be used in psychotherapy clinics to improve the psychological symptoms associated with vaginismus.

Keywords: Accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy, Quality of sexual life, Marital adjustment, Vaginismus

Full-Text [PDF 554 kb] (354 Downloads)

Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Psychology

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