Investigating the Effectiveness of Play Therapy on Reducing Despair and Anxiety in Children with Cancer

Hospitalization of children due to cancer causes feelings such as fear of death, anxiety, and despair in them. This research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of play therapy for hopelessness and anxiety in children with cancer. The current study is a semi-experimental type and was done with a post-test-pre-test design and with a control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of children with cancer who had visited the hospital. Among these children, 30 people were chosen by the available sampling method and were randomly divided into two control (15 people) and experimental (15 people) groups. For children in the experimental group, 8 sessions of play therapy were implemented. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS-23 software. According to the results obtained from this study, play therapy significantly reduced frustration and anxiety scores in the experimental group in the post-test phase (p<0.001). Based on the results obtained from this study, the intervention of play therapy is effective in decreasing despair and anxiety and can be utilized as a complementary method alongside the main cancer treatments.