Comparison the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy with Acceptance & Commitment Therapy on Intensity of Pain Experience & Psychological Well-being of Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of MBCT with ACT on intensity of pain experience & psychological well-being of patients with spinal cord injury.

The method of this study was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow up with the control group. The population of the study consisted of patients with spinal cord injury who referred to welfare counseling centers in Tabriz in year 2021. In total, 30 people, They were selected by using simple random sampling and randomly divided into three groups. The experimental groups received their group-specific treatment in 8 sessions 1.5 hours. Measuring instruments were visual measurement of pain and Reef's psychological well-being questionnaire. Analysis of findings through repeated measures analysis of variance & Bonferroni post hoc test.

In the pretest, mean and standard deviation of MBCT for intensity of pain experience was (8/50±1/08) & for psychological well-being was (46/10±6/83); in ACT for for intensity of pain experience was (8/70±1/16) & for psychological well-being was (45/50±6/31); and in the control group for intensity of pain experience was (8/40±0/96) & for psychological well-being was (44/50±6/68). Both treatments compared to the control group, reduced intensity of pain experience and increased psychological well-being of patients after the test (p<0.001). In the follow-up phase, the effect of these two treatments on intensity of pain experience and psychological well-being was lasting (p<0.001). The effect of these two treatments on intensity of pain experience and psychological well-being at posttest and follow-up was not different (p>0.05).

MBCT and ACT increased the acceptance of the disease in patients with spinal cord injury; thus, they can be considered useful treatment strategies to improve the mental status of this patients.