Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Health Anxiety in Asthma Patients

The aim of this study was to investigate effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy on emotion regulation and health anxiety in patients with asthma in Isfahan. Research design was quasi-experimental with experimental and control groups and statistical population included all patients who referred to Khorshid Hospital. In this community, 22 patients with asthma were selected by convenient sampling. They were randomly assigned into the experimental and the control groups. The intervention method of dialectical behavior therapy was performed for experimental group during eight treatment sessions. Both groups were evaluated in pre-test and post-test phases using the emotion regulation and the health anxiety questionnaire. The data was analyzed using covariance analysis method. The results showed that there was a significant difference in emotion regulation variables in reappraisal subscale between experimental and control groups, but there was no significant difference in the suppression subscale. Regarding health anxiety, there was also a significant difference between two groups. Based on research findings, dialectical behavior therapy can lead to improvement of emotion regulation and health anxiety in patients with asthma. Therefore, this intervention is used as an effective treatment in improving these symptoms.