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Aim and Background: Anxiety can lead to heart disease in a 10-year interval, and heart disease, in turn, leads to anxiety; death anxiety. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of group schema therapy on reducing the death anxiety in cardiovascular patients. Methods and Materials: The statistical population included all patients with cardiovascular disease referred to Tehran heart center. The sampling method was of convenience and the research design was semi-experimental with the experimental and control groups including pre-test and post-test. Initially, the data from the Templer death anxiety scale were collected from 113 individuals and after a primary evaluation 30 individuals (18 women and 12 men) from the participants who had the highest marks in the test were involved in the research and assigned randomly to two experimental and control groups. It was previously considered that the participants did not suffer from a nervous condition disturbing consciousness, such as head injury and dementia. Then, the members of the experimental group were intervened for 12 sessions of 90 minutes by group schema therapy and after that, they were evaluated again in terms of the degree of death anxiety. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 23. Findings: The results showed that after the implementation of the schema therapy, the death anxiety level of the experimental group significantly decreased (p< 0.05, F= 147.4). Therefore, the hypothesis of the research on the effectiveness of group schema therapy on reducing death anxiety is confirmed. Conclusions: This finding may contribute to the current research vacuum regarding death anxiety in cardiovascular patients as well as to clinical applications in the face of this phenomenon.

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Aim and Background: Death anxiety plays an important role in panic disorder. Women with panic disorder experience higher death anxiety than other types of anxiety disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of death anxiety and the strategies to deal with that in women with panic disorder.

Methods and Materials: This study was conducted using the underlying theory approach. Date was collected by semi- structured interviews with 13 women with panic disorder. The data was analyzed using Strauss and Corbin methods, which included open, axial and selective coding.

Findings: Findings of the causes of death anxiety included 4 main categories: (related to oneself, related to others, nature of death, related to the Afterword) and also contains 7 initial concepts: (revealing human weakness, stopping of life, death of loved ones, destiny of loved ones, dying process, lack of there recognition of death and afterwards and the punishment for the sins). Their strategies of confronting included two main categories: (avoidance strategies, consolation strategies) plus that seven basic concepts are also engaged: (limiting relationships, avoiding situations related to death, considering God’s mercy, abandoning the idea of death, charity, promising positive ideas to oneself, staying in fear).

Conclusions: In addition to self- related factors, factors related to others, the unknown nature of death and the afterlife were involved in causing death anxiety in women with panic disorder. They use avoidant and repressive solutions that do not provide them with sufficient effectiveness.

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Aim and Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The prevalence of this Virus has had a variety of effects on different people in the community, with some people exhibiting a higher rate of self-care behaviors that can point to a variety of reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Health Locus of Control and Death Anxiety in predicting self-care behaviors related to the COVID-19 in the student population of Tehran.
Methods and Materials: The present study was descriptive-correlation with predictive method. The statistical population of the present study was all students in Tehran in the academic year 1401-1400. Among them, 478 people were selected for the research sample by available sampling method and evaluated online with the Multiple Health Locus of Control scale (1978) and Death Anxiety scale (1970) through the social networks. Then, the obtained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation and stepwise regression via statistical package for social sciences version 26.
Findings: The results showed that there are positive and significant relationship between internal locus of control, locus of control related to powerful others and death anxiety with self-care behaviors (p<0.01) and there is a negative and significant relationship (p<0.05) between locus of control related to chance and self-care behaviors. Also, the results of stepwise regression analysis showed that research variables can only explain and predict 14% of the variance of the self-care behaviors of students in Tehran.
Conclusions: In general, the findings of this study confirmed the more prominent role of the locus of control related to powerful others in predicting self-care behaviors related to the COVID-19 in students.

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Aim and Background: Cancer is a chronic disease that, despite medical advances and the development of treatments, this disease is still unique in terms of the feeling of helplessness and deep fear it creates in a person, and the psychological and physical effects on many aspects of their lives, such as the quality of life. Disrupt life and sense of agency. In this research, the aim of the study was the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on the quality of life and the sense of agency of breast cancer patients.
Methods and Materials: The research method is a randomized clinical trial with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included all patients diagnosed with breast cancer in government cancer treatment centers located in Isfahan. The sample includes 36 patients with breast cancer from Seyed al-Shohda Hospital (AS) in Isfahan and Ala Cancer Prevention and Control Center, who were selected through available sampling and randomly divided into two experimental groups (18 people) and control groups (18 people). The experimental group underwent emotional schema therapy by Leahy (2012) in 9 sessions of 60 minutes. The data in this research, by Arnson quality of life questionnaire (1987) and Palito and et al (2013) sense of agency questionnaire was compiled in three stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. And it was done using analysis of variance with repeated measurements in SPSS-23 software.
Findings: The results of variance analysis with repeated measurements showed that emotional schema therapy significantly improved the quality of life and sense of agency of the experimental group (P<0.01).
Conclusions: The results of the present study showed that the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on increasing the quality of life and sense of agency was confirmed in the present study. It is suggested to use this type of treatment to help breast cancer patients with death anxiety.
 

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Aim and Background: The number of female heads of households has been increasing in recent years, which has led to severe psychological pressure in this group of women. Performing psychological interventions for this cohort can be helpful in improving their mental health. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of Rollo May's existential psychotherapy on death anxiety, loneliness and the meaning of life for female heads of households.
Methods and Materials: The research was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design, a control group and a two-month follow-up phase. The statistical population included all female heads of households in Esfahan welfare organization. The statistical sample consisted of 30 women who were selected by Targeted sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental (15 people) and control (15 people) groups. The experimental group underwent Rollo May's existential psychotherapy for ten 90-minute sessions and the control group remained on the waiting list. Both groups were evaluated in the pre-test, post-test and the two-month follow-up phase by Templer Death Anxiety Scale (1970), Russell et al.'s Loneliness Scale (1980) and Steger's Meaning in Life Questionnaire (2010). In order to check and analyze the data, SPSS23 statistical software and repeated measures analysis of variance method were used.
Findings: The results showed that existential psychotherapy had a significant effect on the improvement of death anxiety, the presence of meaning, search for meaning, and feeling of loneliness in female heads of the family in the post-test stage, and this effect remained in the follow-up phase as well (p<0.001).
Conclusions: The results of the research indicate the significant effectiveness of the Existential psychotherapy in death anxiety, loneliness and the meaning of life for female heads of households; Therefore, the responsible institutions should provide the conditions of free existential psychotherapy interventions for female heads of families so that the conditions of these families will be more suitable.                       

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Aim and Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one of the central nervous system disorders that poses numerous challenges regarding the psychological adjustment of affected individuals worldwide. Psychological interventions can be utilized to address these challenges. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based on the Rutgering approach (delivered in a hybrid format of in-person and online sessions) on health anxiety, death anxiety, and body image in MS patients in Tehran.
Methods and Materials: The research employed a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest and follow-up structure for both the intervention and control groups. Using convenience sampling, 30 MS patients registered with a rehabilitation charity in Tehran who scored above the mean on health anxiety, death anxiety, and body image questionnaires were selected. These participants were randomly assigned to two groups of 15. The intervention group received CBT sessions based on the Rutgering et al. (2022) approach in a hybrid in-person and online format.
Findings: The results of repeated measures ANOVA indicated that implementing the hybrid CBT protocol significantly improved health anxiety and body image and reduced death anxiety in MS patients (P = 0.01).
Conclusions: The findings suggest that CBT based on the Rutgering approach is effective in addressing psychological characteristics such as health anxiety, body image, and death anxiety in MS patients. Therefore, it can be considered a complementary treatment alongside other therapeutic methods for MS patients