The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on mental health, hopefulness and meaningfulness in people with cardiovascular disease

Considering the possible role of psychological factors in the process of cardiovascular disease and also the fact that these factors interact with biological agents to produce effects on cardiovascular disease, the present study aimed at evaluation of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on mental health, hopefulness and meaningfulness in people with cardiovascular disease.

The present study was an applied one and was done as pre-test, post-test and control group. The study population included all cardiovascular patients who were referred to Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center between January to March 2017 and had a history of myocardial infarction or open heart surgery in the last month. The study sample consisted of 30 patients with cardiovascular disease who were willing to participate in the study and met the inclusion criteria. The subjects were randomly assigned to the case and control groups (each group consisting of 15 subjects). Data were obtained using Snyder Hope Questionnaire, Meaning-seeking Questionnaire, and General Health Questionnaire and analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA and SPSS software.

The results showed that analysis of variance was significant for intragroup factor (time). For the intergroup factor, only significant variables were found for somatic symptoms and social dysfunction and were not significant for the other variables. The results of the present study indicate that time effect alone is significant regardless of group effect. The interaction of group and time was also significant (F = 12.84, df = 2) and its effect was reported 0.50.

Overall, the findings of this study showed that acceptance and commitment based therapy is effective on mental health, hope and Meaning-seeking in Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases.