Comparison of the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy and reality therapy on mental disorders symptoms

Research shows that mental disorders are highly prevalent in prisoners and psychological interventions can help them to improve their psychological health. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on changing automatic thinking and self-criticism to create a healthy personality. ACT therapy focuses on increasing psychological flexibility, which is the ability to attend to experiences in the present moment without judgment, and in reality therapy emphasizes people's responsibility. However, comparative research on these three treatments in prisoners has received less attention.

The purpose of the research was to compare the efficacy of group therapy based on acceptance and commitment (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), cognitive-behavioral therapy (Beck et al., 1979), and reality therapy (Glasser, 1965) on the symptoms of mental disorders in male prisoners of Isfahan Central Prison.

The present research was a semi-experimental type of pre-test, post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population included all male prisoners of Isfahan Central Prison, from among whom 120 were selected based on systematic random sampling and were placed in experimental and control groups (per group n=30). Before and after the treatment and also during the follow-up period, the subjects completed the checklist of symptoms of mental disorders (SCL-90) by Dragotis et al. (1999). Acceptance and commitment (Hayes, Strosahl & Wilson, 1999), cognitive-behavioral therapy (Beck et al., 1979), and reality therapy (Glasser, 1965) were conducted separately in 12 sessions and the control group was placed on the waiting list. In order to analyze the data, analysis of variance with repeated measurements was used.

The results of showed the effectiveness of all three treatment models in improving the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism (p<0.05). According to the results of the follow-up test, there was a significant difference in the research variables between the three treatment groups and CBT on the symptoms of mental disorders has been significantly more effective than reality therapy and ACT (p<0.05)

The results of the research showed that acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy and reality therapy improved the psychological health of male prisoners and CBT was superior.