Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy on Quality of Life, Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Functional Indigestion

The most common gastrointestinal disorders are gastrointestinal dysfunctions, which is one of the most common types of gastrointestinal dysfunction that can impair health and quality of life. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare the the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy and cognitive-behavioral group therapy on quality of life, anxiety and depression in patients with functional indigestion.

This was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test with control group. The statistical population of the study was women with functional indigestion referring to gastrointestinal clinics in Arak in 2018. A total of 33 individuals were selected by convenience sampling and were randomly assigned into three groups (11 individuals in each group). Experimental groups received 8 sessions of 90 minutes, respectively, with acceptance, commitment, and cognitive-behavioral methods, and the control group received no training. Research instruments were the “Nepean's Dyspepsia Index for Quality of Life”, the “Beck's Anxiety Inventory”, and the “Beck's Depression Inventory”. In the present study, face validity and content validity of the instruments were measured and confirmed by experts and reliability was measured by Cronbach's alpha method. Data were analyzed in SPSS software version 22.

Acceptance and commitment group therapy and cognitive-behavioral group therapy increased quality of life and reduced anxiety and depression in patients with functional dyspepsia compared to the control group. Also, cognitive-behavioral method reduced depression in comparison with acceptance and commitment, but there was no significant difference between them in enhancing quality of life and reducing anxiety (P <0.05).

The results showed the importance of both methods, especially cognitive behavioral group therapy in enhancing quality of life and reducing anxiety and depression in patients with functional dyspepsia. Therefore, clinical psychologists and therapists can use these methods, especially cognitive behavioral group therapy, for quality of life, anxiety, and depression interventions.