The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Resilience, Meaning in Life, and Family Function in Family Caregivers of Patients With Schizophrenia

The caring of schizophrenia patients is a tiresome task for their families. This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on resilience, meaning in life, and family functioning in the caregivers of patients with schizophrenia.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and follow-up design and a control group. The study sample included 30 members of schizophrenia patients’ families, referring to 2 neurological and psychological rehabilitation centers in Isfahan Province, Iran. By the convenience sampling method, the experimental group received 8 ACT sessions weekly; however, the control group received no treatment. Both groups were assessed in three phases; pretest, posttest, and one-month follow-up. The assessment tools consisted of Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Stagger Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and McMaster Family Functioning Scale. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS by repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). 

 The collected results indicated the significant difference of posttest and follow-up phases in terms of meaning in life and family functioning scores between the control and experimental groups (P<0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant difference in posttest resilience scores (P<0.05); however, there was no significant difference in the follow-up phase in this respect. 

 The collected results suggested that ACT was effective on the meaning of life, family functioning, and resiliency; thus, it could improve such variables in the caregivers of patients with schizophrenia.