Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment-Based Therapy on Acceptance of Pain and Emotional Control of Cancer Patients

Experience of pain and emotion control in people with cancer would have various psychological and social impacts. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of commitment and acceptance on acceptance of pain and control of emotions in patients with cancer.

The present study was applied in terms of purpose, quasi-experimental and in terms of pre-test and post-test with control group. The statistical population of this study was men with cancer in Kohgiluyeh Countyin 2018. The statistical sample consisted of 26 men with cancer who were selected by purposive sampling and were randomly assigned to two experimental (13 subjects) and a control group (13 subjects). Data were collected using the McKracken & Woles (2004) pain acceptance questionnaires and Williams & Chambers (1997) emotion control questionnaires. The experimental group received acceptance and commitment based treatment during 8 sessions within 90 minutes, but the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS software.

The results showed that acceptance and commitment-based therapy were effective on pain tendency, active participation, and overall acceptance of pain, anger, depressed mood, anxiety, positive affect, and overall emotional control score at the post-test stage, but the effect did not stand permanently. (p<.05)

Psychologists may use the results of this study for therapeutic interventions based on acceptance therapy and the commitment to increase pain acceptance and control emotions in cancer patients. .