The role of Twin Hearts Meditation Practice on fatigue in breast cancer patients

Introduction: Due to the prevalence of fatigue in women with breast cancer during chemotherapy and its impact on the psychological state of patients and also the prevalence of depression, they encounter a reduction in life expectancy. Therefore, this study was aim to determine the effect of twin hearts meditation on fatigue in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Method: The current study was a clinical trial. All the women with breast cancer who referred to chemotherapy clinics of Shohadaye Tajrish hospital were recruited in this study using purposive sampling method and allocated into two groups randomly. Research Tools: demographic questionnaire and fatigue severity questionnaire were completed by patients before the intervention. Throughout the intervention, twin heart meditation was taught to the patients in the experimental group by the experiment fellow and they were asked to perform it at least 3 times a week for two weeks. After two weeks of intervention data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 and α=0.05 was considered.Results: The two groups of experimental and control were similar in demographic data (P> 0.05) and no significant difference was seen in the fatigue severity mean score. However, there was a significant in the mean score of the two groups after the intervention (P<0.001). Fatigue severities mean score in the control group changed from (47.3) to (54.4). No significant difference was seen in the mean score before and after the intervention.Conclusion: The twin hearts meditation exercise reduces the fatigue of breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Therefore, meditation is recommended as a complementary therapy beside medication in these patients.

Keywords:

Twin Hearts Meditation , Breast Cancer , Fatigue , Chemotherapy