Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Resilience, Psychological Well-Being, and Life Expectancy in Asthmatic Patients

Psychosomatic experts have tried to associate mental disorders to physical illnesses. The vulnerability of different parts of the body is thought to depend on fundamental differences between individuals. One of the methods that seems to affect the psychological problems of asthma patients is acceptance and commitment therapy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance- and commitment-based therapy on resilience, psychological well-being, and life expectancy in asthmatic patients.

This quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test study was conducted on 30 asthmatic patients who were randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups according to the inclusion criteria. Acceptance and commitment therapy sessions were based on the treatment package of Hayes et al. in 8 sessions of 60 minutes on the experimental group and no intervention was performed on the control group. All participants took part in the pre-test and post-test. Collection tools included Conner-Davidson Resilience Questionnaire, Schneider Life expectancy, and Ryf Psychological Well-being.

The results showed a significant difference in the components of resilience, psychological well-being, and life expectancy in asthmatic patients before and after the experiment (p <0.05). In other words, acceptance and commitment-based therapy had a positive effect on resilience, psychological well-being and life expectancy in asthmatic patients and these components have increased in patients.

Findings showed that acceptance- and commitment-based therapy was effective on resilience, psychological well-being, and life expectancy of asthmatic patients. This treatment is suggested to be used in conjunction with drug therapy to improve the psychological symptoms of asthmatic patients.