Anxiety, Depression, and Stress in Women with Frequent Miscarriage Experiences: Before and After Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Fertility phenomenon holds great importance in almost all cultures; therefore, failures in this matter can turn into a harmful sensation. This study aimed to study the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety, depression, and stress in women with frequent miscarriage records.

The research design of this study was quasi-experimental, including post-test and pre-test types with experiment and control groups. The population of this study consisted of all applicants from Alzahra hospital of Rasht, Iran with frequent miscarriage records in summer 2019. The research sample size comprised 30 women who were chosen through convenience method sampling and were randomly assigned into two groups of control group (15 participants) and experiment group (15 participants). Eight sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy were performed on the experiment group. Lovibond and Lovibond’s (1995) scale of depression, anxiety, and stress was applied to collect the data. To analyze the data, one-way ANCOVA was used.

Results revealed that acceptance and commitment therapy was significantly reduced (P=0.001). The mean scores of anxiety (M=27.73±0.79), depression (M=26.73±1.22), and stress (M=27.06±0.59) in the experimental group as compared with control group that were anxiety (28.26±0.96), depression (28±0.75), and stress (28.13±0.83), respectively.

The findings of present study indicated that acceptance and commitment therapy increased the psychological flexibility and led to committed action toward personal values. Therefore, this therapy is applicable for those women with frequent miscarriages to decrease their anxiety, depression, and stress levels.