Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on the Life Expectancy, Resilience and Death Anxiety in Women with Cancer

Introduction: An annual record of 90,000 new cases of cancer in Iran and a mortality rate of 55,000 affected cases is indicative of alarming outbreak of cancer in the country to the extent that an average of 100 people die each day due to this disease. The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on the life expectancy, resilience and death anxiety in women with cancer. Methods: The present research is a semi-experimental research with pretest-posttest control group design. The research population consisted of all women with cancer who referred to the Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran in 2017. Thirty women who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into two groups: experimental and control. Life expectancy, resilience and death anxiety scales were used and multivariate covariance analysis was applied for data analysis. Results: The results showed that life expectancy increased in the experimental group in compare with the control group (p<0.05) and the death anxiety of the experimental group decreased in compare to the control group (p<0.05) after acceptance and commitment training. Conclusion: Acceptance and commitment therapy is effective in increasing the life expectancy and resilience and also in decreasing death Anxiety in women patient with cancer. These findings can be used in designing of psychological treatment interventions in the field of cancer.