The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Therapy on the Illness Acceptance and Coping Strategies in Patients with Systematic Lupus Erythematosus

Illness acceptance, stress and how to cope with it, are some of the important issues playing a crucial rule in illness prognosis, physical and psychological wellbeing of chronic patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on illness acceptance and coping strategies in Systematic Lupus Erythematosus patients. This quasi-experimental study was carried out with a pre-test, post-test , and follow-up with the control group. The sample was included 16 Lupus patients who were referred to the Rheumatology clinic of Alzahra hospital in Isfahan.The sample was selected by using the available sampling method and patients were assigned randomly into two groups of experimental and control. The experimental group received 8 sessions of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. Control group had not been received the intervention.Chronic Illness Acceptance Questionnaire and the short form of Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations were used to collect data. After the end of intervention, both groups were tested again in post-test and 30 days afterward in follow-up phases. The data were analyzed by using Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance. The results showed that the intervention was effective in increasing activity engagement but it could not be effective for increasing willingness. The intervention was effective to increase the use of problem-focused coping and decrease the use of emotional-focused coping. The intervention was also successful in decreasing the use of avoidant coping. Overall, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction can be a beneficial treatment to increase illness acceptance and enhancing coping strategies in patients with Lupus.