Comparison of the Effectiveness of Autogenic Training with Affect Regulation Training on Psychological Adjustment of Women with type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic disease that has negative physical and psychological consequences and effective interventions are necessary to reduce these consequences. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the Autogenic training (AT) and Affect regulation training (ART) on the psychological adjustment of women with type 2 diabetes.

Among female patients with type 2 diabetes referred to the Iranian Endocrine Institute, 33 patients were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into three groups (AT, ART, and control). Participants answered the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS‐SR) before and at the end of the intervention. The subjects of ART and AT groups underwent 10 90-minute training sessions and the control group did not receive any intervention.

Data analysis with MANOVA and ANOVA showed that psychosocial adjustment to disease in both ART and AT groups was significantly improved compared to the control group (P <0.05). The two groups of AT and ART were not significantly different in improving psychosocial adjustment to disease (P >0.05).

It seems that both interventions AT and ART have been effective in improving the psychological adjustment of women with type 2 diabetes by affecting the conscious or unconscious mechanisms of mind-body communication.Keywords: Diabetes, affect regulation, autogenic training, psychological adjustment.