Comparison the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy on death obsession of women in corona pandemic

Obsession with death is one of the threats to mental health in the corona epidemic. So far, no clinical study comparing the effectiveness of psychological treatments such as acceptance and commitment therapy and behavioral therapy in death obsession has been done, and there is a huge research gap in its investigation.

current research aimed to compare the efficacy of ACT with Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) on death obsession in women in the Corona pandemic.

The present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a one-month follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the study was all women aged 20-60 years old who had a file in two centers in Adiban and Khaneh Behi in 2021. In total, 45 patients were selected by the purposive sampling method through screening and entered the study. The selected patients were divided into three groups (every 15 samples were chosen randomly). Individuals in ACT and DBT each received 8 sessions of 90 minutes of treatment intervention online weekly, the control group did not receive any intervention. The research tool was the death obsession questionnaire Abdel-Khalek (1998). The data were analyzed using the mixed analysis of variance test.

The results showed that in the post-test phase, both intervention methods had a significant effect on reducing women's death obsession (P<0.05). In the follow-up phase, two interventions significantly reduced women's obsession with death, but no statistically significant difference was observed between the two interventions (P>0.05).

Based on the findings of this research, it can be said that both treatments based on acceptance and commitment and dialectical behavior therapy using the principles of mindfulness and increasing psychological flexibility were effective in reducing women's obsession with death. Being aware of these interventions can be effective for women's obsession with death during the Corona era.