Comparison of the Effectiveness of Compassion-focused Therapy and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Cognitive Emotion Regulation among Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary artery disease is one of the psychosomatic diseases that is affected not only by biological factors but also by psychosocial factors. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on cognitive emotion regulation among patients with coronary heart disease.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted based on a pretest-posttest control group design and follow-up. The statistical population of the present study consisted of all heart disease patients referring to the Cardiology Interior Department of Shahid Rajaei Hospital, Karaj, Iran, in 2019. The samples (n=45) were patients with coronary heart disease selected using the convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to three groups, namely CFT, MBSR, and control. Subjects responded to the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale for pretest, posttest, and follow-up. Both treatment packages were held in eight 90-minute sessions. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 24) using the analysis of variance with repeated measures design. The significance levels were considered 0.05 and 0.01.

Based on the results, CFT and MBSR had a significant effect on cognitive regulation of emotion in patients with coronary heart disease. However, it was revealed that there was no difference between the effectiveness of these two methods and their effectiveness continues in the follow-up period (P=0.001).

Compassion-focused therapy and MBSR were both effective on cognitive emotion regulation in patients with coronary heart disease. It is recommended that therapists and healthcare professionals use the training of these two methods to improve the mental and physical health of patients with coronary artery disease.