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Updated: Sep 5, 2025

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling
Published on: January 17, 2025
Paramedical counselling in infertility treatment: its effects on anxio-depressive symptom severity, perceived stress
Angelika Szatmári1, Kornélia Helembai1, János Zádori2
1Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Studies, University of Szeged, Hungary.
Aims:
The importance of contributing psychological factors and stress-control in female infertility is well documented, but research on their role in male infertility is scarce. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a novel paramedical counselling on anxio-depressive symptom severity, perceived stress and self-esteem in infertile men participating in an infertility treatment programme.
Methods:
Patients were recruited from clinics of University of Szeged, Hungary between 2019 May and 2020 December, and were sorted into control (n = 51) and experimental (n = 57) groups, where patients in the experimental group received a 5-session paramedical counselling in extension to their medical treatment. The levels of anxio-depressive symptom severity, perceived stress and self-esteem were measured prior to and after receiving paramedical counselling. The control group scored lower in regards of the severity of depressive symptom, and showed an increase of self-esteem, while the experimental group resulted in a significant decrease of anxio-depressive scores with the elevation of the level of self-esteem.
Results:
Our results indicate that joining an infertility treatment programme alone had a positive role in reducing depressive symptoms and in the increase of self-esteem among infertile men, but receiving additional paramedical counselling throughout the treatment programme resulted in the decrease of anxio-depressive symptoms, besides the elevation of the level of self-esteem, with a significantly higher decrease in the state anxiety compared to not receiving this additional paramedical counselling.
Conclusions:
Thus, it would be advisable for infertility treatment programmes to incorporate screening for psychological vulnerability and implement additional paramedical counselling to alleviate these confounding symptoms detrimental to conceiving.
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