Comparison of Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) on Internalized Shame in Patients with Vitiligo

Skin diseases, not only may have physical consequences but also costly psychological consequences in one’s life. The present study was conducted to compare the effect of group counseling with the approaches of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on the internalized shame of patients with vitiligo.

This was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design and follow-up and control groups. The study population consisted of all women with vitiligo who were referred to Razi Hospital, in Tehran, in 1399. A total of 45 persons who met the inclusion criteria were purposefully selected and randomly divided into 3 groups of 15 people each (two experimental groups and one control group). The study tool included Cook's Internalized Shame Scale (1993). Descriptive statistics and repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test the research hypotheses. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 20).

Both CFT and ACT therapeutic approaches were effective in reducing internalized shame in patients with vitiligo, compared to the control group. A comparison of the two approaches showed no significant differences between the two experimental groups of CFT and ACT in terms of all components of shyness, self-esteem, and internalized shame.

Based on the obtained results, the above-mentioned treatments can be used to improve the psychological status of patients with vitiligo.