The Effect of Clay Therapy on Anxiety, Depression, and Happiness in People with Physical Disabilities

Background: Physical disability is a damage that limits the major activities of a person s life and leads to anxiety, depression, mental health problems, and lowers happiness levels. In light of these consequences, it seems necessary to carry out some intervention to reduce depression and anxiety as well as promote the happiness of people with physical impairment. Objectives: Therefore, this study sets out to investigate the effect of clay therapy on anxiety, depression, and happiness in physically impaired individuals under the Welfare Organization support in Qaen city. Methods: In this randomized controlled clinical trial, 50 individuals with a physical disability, under the Welfare Organization support in Qaen city, in the year 2016, who fulfilled the criteria for entering the study, were selected by convenience sampling and assigned to two groups, the experiment group (25 people) and the control group (25 people), through systematic random sampling. The experiment group received a clayworking program for 12 sessions of 60 minutes each (two sessions per week). The data collection tool was a demographic questionnaire, a Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS21), and the Oxford Happiness Inventory. Data were analyzed using SPSS 15 software, chisquare, independent i gt;t /i test, MannWhitney U test, Friedman test, and Wilcoxon test. Results: The results of the present study show that the mean score of happiness after completing the sixth session was significantly higher in the experiment group than in the control group. The mean depression and anxiety scores after the intervention in the experiment group were significantly lower than that in the control group, while the mean score of happiness after the clay therapy was significantly higher in the experiment group than that in the control group (P 0.001). Conclusions: Based on the results, clay therapy has the potential to reduce anxiety and depression as well as increase the happiness of people with physical impairment under Welfare Organization support.