The effectiveness of compassion focused therapy on distress tolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity in patients with cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are among the most common, chronic and debilitating diseases. This study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of compassion focused therapy (CFT) on the distress tolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity in patients with the CVD.

It was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and a control group. The statistical population included all cardiovascular patients in Mashhad city in 2019-2020. The sample consisted of 30 patients referred to Valiasr clinic that were selected by available sampling method and placed in experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent CFT for 8 sessions of 2 hours and, at the end, both groups performed the post-test. The measurement tools were distress tolerance scale, difficulties in emotion regulation scale and anxiety sensitivity scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the variables of distress tolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity (P<0.05); In other words, CFT has been effective on distress tolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity in patients with CVD.

Based on the results, CFT can be used to increase distress tolerance and reduce difficulty in the emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity among the cardiovascular patients