Determining the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Regulating Emotion and Mental Health of Obese Women

Due to the role of obesity in mental health and the importance of emotional regulation in these patients, the need to pay attention to the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy in women with obesity has been neglected. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in regulating emotion and mental health of obese women.

The present study was a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest with a control group. The statistical population included all obese women who referred to the obesity treatment center of Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran in 2019; From the research community, among the eligible individuals who volunteered for cooperation, 30 people were selected by purposive sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Data collection tools included the Gross and John Emotion Regulation Scale (2003) and the WHO Quality of Life Short Scale (2000). The experimental group participated in eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy program Mitchell et al. (2007), but the control group did not receive any intervention and were placed on a waiting list for treatment. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and SPSS-24 software.

The results showed that in the post-test, after adjusting the post-test scores on the pre-test scores, the mean scores of reassessment and mental health of the experimental group increased significantly compared to the control group, but the mean repression score decreased (p <0.001).

Based on the results of this study, group cognitive-behavioral therapy should be used as a complementary therapy along with other treatment methods to improve emotion regulation and psychological health of obese women.