The Comparision of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Psychological Distress and Hope in Males with Heart Failure

The treatment processes and complications of heart failure are associated with tension, mood problems, anxiety and feeling of hopelessness. Due to the importance of psychological health and hope in dealing with the consequences of the disease and the effect of mindfulness-based interventions on them, the aim of this study was to compare the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy with acceptance and commitment therapy on psychological distress and hope in males with heart failure.

This research was semi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group on three-month follow-up. 45 males aged 35 to 55 with stage B heart failure in Isfahan city, were purposefully selected and placed in three groups of 15 (two experiment groups and one control group) by simple random method. Data were collected with depression, anxiety and stress scale, Loybond & Loybond's (1995) and Hope scale Snyder et al. (1991), in the three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The interventions performed for test groups. The control group did not receive any intervention. Data analysis was done with mixed analysis of variance and Bonferroni's post hoc test.

Findings showed a significant difference for depression, anxiety, stress and hope in both interventions compared to the control group in the post-test and follow-up (P˂0.05). Comarsion of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy with acceptance and commitment therapy showed a significant difference in the treatment of depression (P=0.005), anxiety (P=0.034) and hope (P=0.007). However no significant difference was observed for Stress (P=0.451).

Both interventions reduced depression, anxiety, stress, and increased hope in males with heart failure. Therefore the suggested treatments should be used in medical centers along with common medical treatments as complementary interventions. For anxiety problems, the preferred method is mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and for hope, mood and depression problems, acceptance and commitment therapy.