Comparing the Effecacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Solution Focused Brief Therapy on Uncoditional Self-Acceptance and Pain Anxiety among Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer affects the various aspects of mental health of patients and aggravates mental stress by causing disturbance in the mental image of the patient which consequently challenges patient’s mental health. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effecacy of acceptance and commitment therapy and solution focused brief therapy on uncoditional self-acceptance and pain anxiety among patients with breast cancer. The study of was semi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test design and control group. The statistical population included all patients with breast cancer who were referred to health centers and hospitals in the cities of Babol and Babolsar, in northern Iran, in 2018. A sample of 90 patients was selected by random sampling method and three groups of 30 women with breast cancer were randomly divided into three groups. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) was performed for experimental groups and no intervention was performed in the control group. To obtain the data, the scale of pain anxiety symptoms and unconditional admission questionnaire were used. To analyze the data, multivariate analysis of covariance and statistical software SPSS 23 were used. The mean (SD) age of participants in the ACT group was 36.2 (7.4), SFBT 35.7 (7.2), and the control group 38.1 (9.4) years. The mean (SD) pain anxiety score in the ACT group was 76.3 (10.5) in the pre-test which decreased to 52.7 (10.2) in post-test (P<0.001); and from 77.1 (8.4) in the pre-test to 67.1 (6.4) in the post-test in SFBT group (P<0.001). The mean (SD) unconditional self-acceptance score in the ACT group increased from 60.3 (5.6) to 94.1 (21.5) in the post-test (P<0.001); and from 62.4 (3.1) in the pre-test to 90.4 (9.3) in the post-test in the SFBT group (P<0.001). However, the mean (SD) of both variables in the pre-test and posttest of the control group did not show a significant difference. The acceptance and commitment therapy was more effective than solution focused brief therapy (P<0.01). The study showed that both acceptance and commitment therapy and solution focused brief therapy had a desirable effect on reducing pain anxiety and increasing unconditional self-acceptance in patients with breast cancer; however, the acceptance and commitment therapy was more effective than solution focused brief therapy.