Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on Quality of Life in Male Patients with Painful Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of compassion-focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on the quality of life in men with painful spinal cord injury. The statistical population consisted of all male patients referring to a rehabilitation hospital in Isfahan. For the purpose of this study, 30 male patients were selected using purposive sampling and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group). The research design was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group and follow-up. The therapeutic intervention was administered to the experimental group over eight sessions, while the control group received no intervention. The instrument used in this study was the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL), which was completed at three time points: pretest, posttest, and two-month follow-up. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). The results indicated a significant difference between the experimental and control groups at both the posttest (P < 0.01) and follow-up stages (P < 0.01). Therefore, with 99% confidence, it can be concluded that compassion-focused ACT is effective in improving the quality of life in male patients suffering from painful spinal cord injury.