Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment therapy on the Depression, Anxiety and Stress among patients with breast cancer

Introduction and Aim: Breast cancer is the most frequent malignant tumor in women. This disease causes many problems in many individuals in the areas of individual, family and social life and lead to an increase in the sensation of vulnerability and physical symptoms and disturb the daily activities of the patient. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of admission and commitment therapy on depression, anxiety and stress in patients with breast cancer.Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental design with pretest, posttest in the experimental and control groups. Among breast cancer patients referred to the Association of Cancer Patients Koomesh, 20 breast cancer patients were selected and randomly assigned into experimental(n=10)and control(n=10)groups. The experimental group underwent eight weeks of intervention was based on Acceptance and Commitment and the control group received no intervention. Depression Anxiety Stress questionnaires (DASS-21) completed by patients in two stages: before and after intervention and data were analyzed by multivariate and univariate Analysis of covariance using SPSS-23 software. Results: Results of multivariate covariance analysis showed significant differences in Depression (P= 0.002), Anxiety(P=0.001) and Stress(P=0.001) among two groups. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it seems that the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a complementary therapeutic and psychological treatment alongside to drug and chemotherapy therapies is effective in reducing depression, anxiety and stress in patients with breast cancer..

Keywords:

Breast cancer , Acceptance and Commitment Therapy , Depression , anxiety , Stress