The Effectiveness of Compassion-Based Therapy on Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Alexithymia in the Elderly

Aging seems to be a biological process all living beings, including humans, experience. Hence, it is important to pay careful attention to the elderly and to prevent disorders such as meta-cognitive beliefs and alexithymia among the elderly. Therefore, the current study was to consider the effectiveness of compassion-based therapy on meta-cognitive beliefs and alexithymia in the elderly. It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and control group design. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the elderly men with alexithymia living in Ahvaz, Iran in 2020. The sample consisted of 30 elderly men (60 to 70 years old) selected by convenience sampling method and according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The experimental group received eight weekly 90-minute sessions of compassion-based therapy. The questionnaires applied in the current study included Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Wells and Cartwright-Hatton’s Meta-Cognitions Scale. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at the confidence level of 0.05. The results showed that there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of meta-cognitive beliefs and alexithymia in the elderly (p<0.001). Put in other words, compassion-based therapy resulted in a decrease of meta-cognitive beliefs and alexithymia in the elderly. According to the findings of the present study, compassion-based therapy can be suggested as an efficient method in order to reduce meta-cognitive beliefs and alexithymia in the elderly.