The effectiveness of emotion regulation training and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on psychological pain in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic progressive disease of the central nervous system and its symptoms include pain and decreased functional capacity. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of emotion regulation training and acceptance and commitment therapy on psychological pain in patients with MS. This research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design and follow-up. The participants had an age range of 20-40 years and with a scale of physical disability (EDSS) of one to 5.5 and purposefully and voluntarily selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Both groups answered the psychological pain questionnaires of Orbach et al. (2003) in the pre-test-post-test and 2-month follow-up stages. The experimental groups received 10 sessions of training on emotion regulation strategies and acceptance and commitment therapy once a week for 1.5 hours. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 23 and multivariate analysis of covariance by repeated measures. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance with repeated measures showed that teaching emotion regulation and acceptance and commitment therapy is effective in reducing psychological pain in patients with multiple sclerosis (p < .001). The harm was also expressed as a significant reduction in significant psychological pain scores after the experiments of the experimental groups and these results were maintained in the follow-up phase. Based on the results of this study, it is possible to teach the strategies of emotional regulation and acceptance and commitment therapy along with drug interventions to reduce physical and psychological pain of multiple sclerosis patients in medical centers.