The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment based therapy on biological age, pain intensity and stress in female breast cancer patients

According to statistics breast cancer is highly prevalent in Iranian women and poses a risk to their physical and psychological health. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of ACT on interleukin 6, biological age, pain intensity, and stress in female breast cancer patients in Tehran.

This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-post test with follow-up design (three and six months after first follow-up). The research sample was selected from all women with breast cancer in Tehran based on research entry criteria and via voluntary sampling. Participants were randomly assigned into two experimental (n=10) and control (n=10) groups. The experimental group participated in 8 group sessions which lasted one hour and a half, and the waiting group received their normal treatment until the end of the study. The research data was analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA.

The results of data analysis showed that the treatment program was able to decrease biological age, pain intensity, and stress and was stable throughout time (p<0.01).

Therefore, it could be concluded that this treatment can improve the biopsychological condition of cancer patients.