Comparing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Improving Psychological Well-being of Thalassemia Patients

Thalassemia is on the rise and its scientific study is inevitable to better understand this non-communicable disease and to use the most effective therapeutic interventions. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in improving psychological well-being of thalassemia patients living in Kermanshah, Iran. A pretest-posttest design with a control group was used to conduct this applied quasi-experimental study. Using purposive sampling, 45 thalassemia patients were enrolled (N = 317), and randomly assigned to three 15-individual groups (two intervention groups and a control group). Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Scale (1980) was used as the research tool. The validity and reliability of this tool were confirmed based on expert opinions and Cronbach’s alpha test (0.90), respectively. The data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics (ANCOVA). The participants in the first and second intervention groups underwent ACT and CBT, respectively, while no intervention was made for those in the control group. Based on the results, ACT and CBT approaches significantly improved psychological well-being of the studied thalassemia patients (P < 0.05). In addition, higher levels of psychological well-being were observed in patients who underwent ACT compared to those in the CBT group (P < 0.05). The results showed that the ACT approach is more effective than the CBT approach in improving psychological well-being of thalassemia patients.