The Comparison of Cognitive Fusion, Self-Compassion and Flourishing in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Normal Individuals

Multiple sclerosis is one of the most common neurological diseases and affects various aspects of a personchr('39')s life. The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive fusion, self-compassion and flourishing in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and normal individuals.

The research design was descriptive and comparative. The statistical population included all patients with MS under the supervision of the Mashhad MS Association in 2020, from which 40 people were selected by purposive sampling. For the normal group, 40 normal people matched to patient group were selected. The instruments used in this study were the cognitive fusion questionnaire of Gilanders et al, self-compassion questionnaire of Neff and Diener, Biswas-Diener Flourishing questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed with multivariate analysis of variance and logistic regression using SPSS-24.

The results of the present study showed that the mean scores of cognitive fusions in patients with multiple sclerosis (40.87±5.69) was higher than normal individuals (14.5±5.22), the mean scores of self-compassions in patients with multiple sclerosis (39.72±7.84) was less than normal people (76±9.53) and the mean score of flourishing in patients with multiple sclerosis (25.7±7.76) was less than normal people (47.42±5.75) (p<0.05). The results of logistic regression showed that cognitive fusion, self-compassion and flourishing predicted MS.

Based on the results of the present study patients with MS have higher cognitive fusion and lower self-compassion and flourishing than normal people. Given that psychological factors play an important role in the quality of life and improve performance of these people, it is necessary for counselors and therapists to consider the importance of psychological factors during the treatment of this disease.