The Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Social Self-Efficacy in Adolescents with Epilepsy

The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on cognitive emotion regulation and social self-efficacy in adolescents with epilepsy. This applied research was a quasi-experimental with pretest/posttest design and a control group. The study population consists of 8,000 children and adolescents with epilepsy in Guilan Province, and the research sample consisted of 30 boys with epilepsy aged between 15 and 18 years who were referred to Rasht medical centers in 2021, selected by purposive and available methods considering entry and baseline conditions, and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (15 subjects in each group). The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ-P) and the Social Self-Efficacy Scale (SSES) were used for data collection before and after treatment. The 8 sessions of ACT were conducted for the experimental group. Data were analyzed using SPSS24 software and analysis of covariance. The results of the analysis of covariance showed that ACT improved cognitive emotion regulation and social self-efficacy in adolescents with epilepsy (P<0.001). Based on the results of this study, it can be said that the acceptance and engagement-based intervention can be used as one of the treatment strategies to improve the mental health indicators of people with epilepsy.