Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on the Anxiety, Sleep and Severity of Pain in Patients with Fibromyalgia

The prevalence of fibromyalgia in women and comorbid psychological disorders such as anxiety and sleep disorders lead to disruption of physical therapy and reduced function of patients' healthy lives. The Purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of acceptance and commitment group therapy on anxiety, sleep and pain intensity in patients with fibromyalgia. In this semi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test and quarterly follow-up plan, 34 patients with fibromyalgia were selected by available sampling in 2018 at Bu Ali Hospital in Tehran and randomly assigned to two groups of 20 experimental and control (waiting list). Through 8 sessions, acceptance and commitment group therapy training was performed for experimental group. At the same time, the control group did not receive any intervention. Participants answered Beck Anxiety Questionnaire, McGill Pain, and Choline Spy Sleep Disorders before and after training. Analysis of covariance and repeated measures were used to analyze the data. The results of analysis of covariance and repeated measures showed that acceptance and commitment group therapy have a significant effect on reducing the symptoms of anxiety, sleep and pain intensity in patients with fibromyalgia (p-value <0.001). The results of the present study showed that acceptance and commitment therapy by creating and developing acceptance and psychological flexibility, can reduce patients' psychological damage and lead to a reduction in pain, sleep disorders and anxiety.