The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment based therapy on anxiety tolerance and cognitive flexibility in patients with type 2 diabetes

People with diabetes face psychological challenges. Attention to acceptance and commitment therapy is important in this regard. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment based therapy on distress tolerance and cognitive flexibility.

The quasi-experimental research design was pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population included all type 2 diabetic patients referred to the Maternal Diabetes Center, Touba specialized and sub-specialized clinic and Mostafavian clinic in Sari in 2009-2010. Thirty people were selected as the sample by available sampling method and randomly assigned to an experimental group (15 people) and a control group (15 people). The intervention group underwent 90 minutes of treatment based on acceptance and commitment in 8 sessions once a week. However, no intervention was performed on the control group during this period. The Simons and Gaher (2005) Emotional Anxiety Tolerance Questionnaire and the Dennis and Vander Wal (2010) Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire were administered. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and analysis of covariance using SPSS-23 software. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

The results showed that the treatment was based on acceptance and commitment on distress tolerance (F = 807.6, P <0.001) and cognitive flexibility (F= 814.89, P< =0 /001) had a significant effect.

Cognitive therapy based on acceptance and commitment based on distress tolerance and cognitive flexibility was effective. Therefore, this intervention can be used to reduce the psychological problems of patients with type 2 diabetes.