Introduction
The family center can be a character-giving center for couples to form many constructive and efficient traits that arise with the marital bond between a man and a woman. In a way, this need for intimacy with each other draws couples together. On the other hand, if couples are not committed to the covenant they have made, this family center is exposed to various risks and threats. One of these risks is marital infidelity, which has emotional, virtual, and especially sexual aspects. It causes one of the couples to violate the marital commitment and break the covenant with his or her spouse by establishing an emotional or sexual relationship with another person outside the family framework. Among men, due to their greater sexual needs than women, they commit more marital infidelity and attempt to break the marital covenant. One of the consequences of marital infidelity that affected women experience is symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder characterized by the specific psychological impact of severe life events, including exposure to death, serious threats, marital infidelity, or sexual assault. The two main current diagnostic definitions include the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 5th edition (DSM-5) and the international classification of diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11) diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder, both of which require symptoms to develop after a traumatic experience. According to the DSM-5, posttraumatic stress disorder requires at least one month of symptoms after exposure to an actual or witnessed traumatic event in which actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence occurred. The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder in the international classification of diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11) is similar to the DSM-5, but is narrower and focuses on traditional fear-based symptoms such as reexperiencing, avoidance, and hypervigilance. The purpose of this study was to compare of the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and narrative exposure therapy on posttraumatic stress of women affected by marital infidelity.
Method
This semi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with control group and follow-up 2 month. The statistical population was all the women affected by marital infidelity who referred to the psychological centers of in Tehran city in year 2024. In the first stage, using purposeful sampling method, 45 women were selected and then randomly divided into 2 experimental groups (each group 15 women) and one control group (15 women) were replaced and experimental groups underwent group narrative exposure therapy (8 sessions 90 minutes) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (8 sessions 90 minutes). Posttraumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder characterized by the specific psychological impact of severe life events, including exposure to death, serious threats, marital infidelity, or sexual assault. The two main current diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 5th edition (DSM-5) and the international classification of diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11) diagnoses of PTSD, both of which require symptoms to develop after a traumatic experience. According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 5th edition (DSM-5), posttraumatic stress disorder requires at least one month of symptoms after exposure to an actual or witnessed traumatic event in which actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence occurred. The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder in the international classification of diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11) is similar to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 5th edition (DSM-5), but is narrower and focuses on traditional fear-based symptoms such as reexperiencing, avoidance, and hypervigilance. To collect data revised Civilian Mississippi scale for PTSD (RCMS) of Norris & Perilla (1996). Analysis of variance with repeated measures with SPSS software version 28 was used for data analysis.
Results
The Chi-square analysis statistic obtained from comparing the frequency and percentage of the 3 groups in the education variable was equal to chi-Square = 11.467, which is not statistically significant (sig = 0.075), which indicates that the three groups were similar in terms of academic. The results showed that both interventions had a significant effect on posttraumatic stress of women affected by marital infidelity (P<0.05). In addition, the results of Bonferroni post hoc test showed that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is more effective in posttraumatic stress (P<0.05).