The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on perceived stress, resilience, and the quality of life inthalassemia major patients

Background and aims: The present study aimed to determine the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on perceived stress,resilience, and the quality of life in thalassemia major patients in Lordegan during ۲۰۱۵-۲۰۱۶.Methods: This semi-experimental study used the pre-test and post-test designs with a control group and period. The samples included ۴۰patients with thalassemia major who referred to Lordegan Shohada hospital, were selected by the purposeful sampling technique basedon the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group receivedeight-week sessions of the acceptance and commitment-based therapy, while the control group received no intervention until the end ofthe study. The data were collected by the perceived stress questionnaire (Cohen et al), Researcher Conner and Davison Resilience Scale,and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (SF-۲۶). Finally, the obtained data were analyzed using the SPSS software, repeatedmeasure, and covariance testsResults: The results showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the perceivedstress, resilience, and the quality of life (P < ۰.۰۰۱). In addition, based on the results, ۶۶% of the changes in the perceived stress scores,۸۱% of the difference in the resiliency scores, and ۷۵% of the difference in the quality of life scores were related to the impact of therapybased on the acceptance and group commitment. Further, the results of the analysis variance of the internal group revealed that the effectof therapy based on the acceptance and commitment on the perceived stress, resilience, and the quality of life had a significant differencein pretest, posttest, and follow-up stages.Conclusion: In general, the therapy based on the acceptance and commitment is found to be a useful practice in reducing the perceivedstress while increasing the resilience and improving the quality of life in patients with thalassemia major.

Keywords:

Acceptance and commitment therapy , Perceived stress , resilience , Quality of life , Thalassemia major