Effectiveness of Narrative Therapy in Groups on Psychological Well-being and Distress of Iranian Women with Addicted Husbands

BACKGROUND: This paper investigated the effectiveness of narrative therapy in groups on psychological well-being and distress among Iranian women with addicted husbands. METHODS: The research was an experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design along with follow-ups of one month and three months. The statistical population consisted of all the women with addicted husbands who referred to welfare and social service houses of district 10 in Tehran, Iran. Participants were forty-four persons who had mental health score lower than the mean of statistical society. They were selected using the voluntary sampling method, and were also randomly assigned to two groups, experimental and control. After the early loss, each group included twenty persons and was evaluated by Mental Health Inventory (MHI-28). The experimental group received 10 sessions of the group counseling. Data were analyzed with repeated measure ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc test. FINDINGS: The results showed that psychological well-being of women who received the sessions of group counseling "narrative therapy" was improved significantly rather than those who did not received that (P < 0.001), and psychological distress of them was reduced significantly in comparison to the women who did not participated in the sessions (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Based on these findings, it seems that narrative therapy in groups is effective in the promotion of psychological well-being of women with addicted husbands, and also could be effective in reducing their psychological distress. Therefore, it can be concluded that narrative therapy group interventions improve mental health of women with addicted husbands.