Effectiveness of Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies and Psychological Flexibility in Patients with Non-Cardiac Chest Pain

Non-cardiac chest pain is very pervasive and an alarming complaint that leads people to cardiovascular clinics. However, in many cases there is no physical cause for these pains. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological flexibility in patients with non-cardiac chest pain.

This was a semi- experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and follows with the control group three months later. The 40 samples were selected by targeted sampling of patients that referred to the Dr. Heshmatchr('39')s heart hospital in Rasht, and randomly divided into two groups. Participants responded to two questionnaires: Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Psychological Flexibility. ‎ The experimental group received 8 sessions of 90 minutes of cognitive-behavioral therapy weekly and there was no intervention for control group. After collecting data, results were analyzed by independent t test, Two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test.

The results showed that in the experimental group, in contrast to the control group, the mean scores of negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies ‎decrease (F=18.16, p< 0.001). Positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (F=4.76, p< 0.05) and psychological flexibility increased (F=30.82, p< 0.001). This result was maintained at follow-up.

Training by cognitive-behavioral therapy is effective on cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological flexibility in patients with non-cardiac chest pain.