The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Depression, Alexithymia and Hypertension in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

Background: According to recent studies, cardiovascular diseases have been the most prevalent cause of death and disability worldwide, one of the most hidden types of which is coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease is mainly psychosomatic in nature and the role of psychological (especially personality) and social factors in its occurrence is very important. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on depression, alexithymia, and hypertension in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Methods: The was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design, with a control group and baseline assessment after intervention and three-month follow-up. The statistical population included all patients with cardiovascular diseases referred to Imam Reza hospital in Amol city from July to December 2020. 24 patients were selected as the sample using purposeful sampling and assigned to equal experimental and control groups randomly. The study tools were a researcher-made demographic questionnaire (2019), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (1994), Beck Depression Inventory (1990), and acceptance and commitment treatment protocol (Hayes, 2012). Data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: We found that ACT had a significant effect on reducing depression, alexithymia, and hypertension. Conclusion: Patients who participated in ACT sessions had lower rates of depression, alexithymia, and hypertension.

Effects of a brief intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy versus usual care for cardiac rehabilitation patients with coronary heart disease (ACTonHEART): a randomised controlled trial

“…They found a decrease in health anxiety and an improvement in adherence to treatment after 12 sessions of ACT compared with a no-treatment condition. Similarly, Rahnama Zadeh et al 40 observed a greater improvement in depressive symptoms after an ACT programme encompassing eight 2-hour sessions, compared with the waitlist controls.…”

The International Clinical Neuroscience Journal; 2022 in a Glance

“…Sixteen published original articles present new and novel assessments, diagnostic methods, prevention, treatment and approaches of neurological disease, and valuable epidemiological features and findings to be used worldwide. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] The International Clinical Neuroscience Journal is supported by Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN). The goal of (ICNJ) is to continue publishing high quality and novel studies especially in areas of tissue engineering, molecular biology, personalized medicine, degenerative diseases and neuromodulation.…”