The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Emotional Dysregulation in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Single Case Study

Patients with multiple sclerosis(MS) experience many physical and emotional disorders. Therefore, this study aimed the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on emotional dysregulation in multiple sclerosis patients.

The research method in present study was based on the practical aim, the experiment of type the single-subject with ABA design. The statistical population included all individuals 20 to 50 years with multiple sclerosis disorder who attended the MS Association of Tehran in 2022. Among them, 5 patients with multiple sclerosis (two men and three women) were selected based on inclusion criteria and by purposive sampling. The multiple sclerosis intervention was performed for each patient in 8 sessions of 2.5 hours. The research instrument included demographic questionnaire and difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS).  The data were analyzed using visual analysis at both within-condition and between- condition levels in SPSS and Excel software.  

The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy intervention reduced the emotional dysregulation in patients with multiple sclerosis. So that the scores had a significant decrease compared to the baseline scores in the 8 intervention sessions and follow-up after the treatment (P<0.05).    

The results of this study showed that acceptance and commitment therapy can be effective in reducing the emotional dysregulation in multiple sclerosis patients; And it is suggested that therapists and counselors use this treatment in order to improve the emotional dysregulation of these patients along with other therapeutic interventions.