Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy in Improving Mental Health and Mitigating Alexithymia in Fibromyalgia Patients

The pain and disability caused by chronic diseases such as fibromyalgia disrupt physical, mental, and social activities and job performance. These factors, in turn, diminish mental health in such patients. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) in improving mental health and mitigating alexithymia in fibromyalgia patients.

Method and Materials: 

This quasi-experimental research adopted a pretest-posttest design with a control group and a three-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of all females with fibromyalgia in the rheumatology clinic of Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran, Iran. Thirty-six of them were selected via convenience sampling based on inclusion criteria. The participants were randomly divided into a control group and two experimental groups, one receiving eight 120-min MBSR sessions and the other one receiving eight 120-min ISTDP sessions. The research instruments included the Mental Health Inventory (MHI) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). The data were analyzed via repeated measures ANOVA.

It was found that MBSR and ISTDP interventions were effective in mitigating alexithymia and improving mental health in fibromyalgia patients (P<0.001). There was a significant difference between MBSR and ISTDP, which ISTDP having higher effectiveness and more extended durability in the follow-up stage (P<0.05).

The MBSR and ISTDP interventions effectively mitigate alexithymia and improve mental health in fibromyalgia patients. Therefore, it is suggested that clinical psychologists use such interventions to improve the Quality of Life (QoL) for patients with fibromyalgia