The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy to improving the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic progressive disease of the central nervous system that affects the quality of life of individuals. Acceptance and commitment group therapy is one of the treatments of the third wave of behavior therapy that leads to improving the quality of life in people with chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy on improving the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis.
The present study use a semi-experimental design, with a pretest-posttest and control group paradigm. Among patients referred to the Semnan MS Society, 30 patients were selected and assigmented randomly to the research groups. The Quality of Life Questionnaire was used to examine quality of life of MS patients. The experimental group received acceptance and commitment group therapy in ten sessions. Following the therapeutic intervention both groups were filled questionnaires again and extracted data were analyzed by a Multivariate Analysis of Covariance.
The findings showed that the acceptance and commitment group therapy was effective on the health status, severity of burnout, pain effects, mental health and perception of subject, whereas no effect observed for supportive contexts and sexual satisfaction.
Based on the findings of the present study, acceptance and commitment group therapy can improve the quality of life in the patients with multiple sclerosis and is recommended to clinicians.