The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Body Image and Emotional Regulation in Mastectomy Patients

The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on emotion regulation and body image of women with breast cancer. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest,  posttest,  control group design,  and  2 and 4-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of women with mastectomy surgery in Tehran hospitals in 1400-1401.  Among them, 30 patients were selected by convenient sampling and randomly divided into two experimental groups (15 people) and a control group (15 people). 8 sessions of ACT were performed once a week for the experimental group.  Research tools included the Body Image Scale (BIS, Hopwood, et al., 2001) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ, Gross and John, 2003). The data were analyzed using mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures.  The results showed the difference between the pre-test and post-test stage of body image and the pre-test and 2-month follow-up and pre-test and 4-month follow-up (p<0.05)  is significant. The difference between the pre-test and post-test stage of the reappraisal component of emotion regulation and the pre-test and 2-month follow-up and pre-test and 4-month follow-up (p<0.05) is significant. The difference between the pre-test and post-test stage of the reappraisal component of emotion regulation and the pre-test and 2-month follow-up and pre-test and 4-month follow-up (p<0.05)  is significant.  Based on the results ACT is an effective intervention to improve body image perception and emotion regulation in patients with mastectomy surgery.