The effects of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and compassionate therapy on distress tolerance and difficulty in regulating emotion in patients with cardiovascular disease

This study aimed at comparing functional analysis therapy and compassionate therapy on distress tolerance and difficulty in regulating emotion among cardiovascular patients. It was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test and a control group. The statistical population included all cardiovascular patients in Mashhad in 2020. The sample consisted of 45 cardiovascular patients referred to Valiasr clinic who were selected by convenience sampling method and then were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 patients in each group) and a control group (15 patients). After the pre-test, the experimental groups underwent functional analysis psychotherapy and compassionate therapy interventions, and at the end, both groups took the post-test, but the control group did not receive any intervention. The research instruments included the Distress Tolerance Scale (Simons & Gaher, 2005) and the Emotion Regulation Difficulty Questionnaire (Roemer and Gratz, 2004). Data were analyzed using SPSS software and multivariate analysis of covariance. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the effectiveness of functional analysis psychotherapy and compassion therapy on the tolerance of distress and difficulty in regulating emotion in patients with cardiovascular diseases (P<0.05). Compassionate therapy was more effective than the functional analysis psychotherapy on the tolerance of distress and difficulty in regulating emotion in patients with cardiovascular disease. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that compassion therapy led to increased anxiety tolerance and reduced difficulty in regulating the emotion of cardiovascular patients.