Comparing the effectiveness of compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy and yoga exercises on self-management of people with multiple sclerosis

The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy and yoga exercises on the self-management of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group with a follow-up period of two months. The statistical population of the research included all the MS patients of Borujerd City registered in the MS Association in 2022. In this research, 66 people were randomly selected into three groups of 22 people a group of compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy, yoga exercises, and a control group. The group of compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy included 10 90-minute sessions that were held once a week. Also, yoga training sessions were held in 24 90-minute sessions three times a week. To measure self-management in the measurement stages, the Multiple Sclerosis Self-Management Scale–Revised (MSSM-R) by Bishop and Frain (2011) was used. Data analysis was done using the statistical test of analysis of variance-repeated measurement. The results of the pairwise comparison of the groups showed that the changes in the treatment group compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy with the group of yoga exercises (P=0.028) and the control group (P=0.011) were significant (P<0.05). In general, it can be concluded that only the treatment based on compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy until the follow-up stage was effective in improving self-management.