Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on the Perceived Stress and Sense of Coherence in the Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

The present study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) on the perceived stress and enhancing a sense of coherence among individuals diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. A quasi-experimental design comprising a pre-test, post-test, control group, and a two-month follow-up period was utilized for the study. The statistical cohort comprised all patients diagnosed with ulcerative colitis who were referred to the Digestion and Liver Research Center during  the autumn and winter of 2019-20, under the supervision of Alzahra Hospital. A total of 25 patients who were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis were chosen using a purposive sampling method and assigned at random to either the experimental or control group. Over the course of two months, the experimental group participated in ten ACT sessions, each lasting seventy-five minutes. The applied questionnaires utilized in this study comprised the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Sense of Coherence Questionnaire (SCQ). The data obtained from the study were subjected to analysis using mixed ANOVA via SPSS-23. Patients with ulcerative colitis (p<0.001) experience a significant reduction in perceived tension and sense of coherence, as indicated by the findings. According to the findings, it can be concluded that ACT has the potential to serve as a successful intervention to decrease perceived stress and improvement of sense of coherence among individuals diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. This is achieved through the utilization of six primary processes: acceptance, diffusion, context as self, relationship with the present moment, values, and committed activities.