The efficacy of group acceptance and commitment therapy on health anxiety of woman with epilepsy with three- month follow-up

Group acceptance and commitment therapy, as a treatment method, has direct and two- way correlation with reducing health anxiety. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of group acceptance and commitment therapy on health anxiety of woman with epilepsy with three- month follow-up.
The present study was a controlled experimental study with pre-test and post-test design. Among the female patients with epilepsy admitted to the health centers of Kermanshah, 30 persons were selected through purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 in experimental and 15 in control groups). Both groups responded to health anxiety scale, at the pre-test stage. In the experimental group, the group acceptance and commitment therapy intervention were conducted for 8 sessions of 90-minute. After completing the session, post-test and three months after the intervention, follow-up was conducted on two experimental and control groups. Data analysis was done using spss19 by descriptive tests and ANOVA with repeated measure.
ANOVA with repeated measure analysis showed that the group acceptance and commitment therapy had a significant positive effect on decreasing health anxiety. Findings were also preserved in the follow-up phase.
The results of research showed that of group acceptance and commitment therapy intervention can be used as an efficient way to decrease health anxiety in patients with epilepsy.