Effectiveness of Group Training Based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Anxiety and Depression of Women with Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women that as a sudden event has profound effects on all aspects of patients' lives. Psychosocial interventions may play important roles in reducing anxiety and depression among breast-cancer survivors. Therefore, group training based on acceptance and commitment therapy may help women to cope better with their condition, and decrease their anxiety and depression. METHODS In a quasi-experimental study, 30 patients with breast cancer were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to 2 experimental and control groups. The experimental group attended acceptance and commitment training classes for 8 weeks continuously (each class lasting 90 minutes). Participants in both the experimental and control groups completed Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BHI-II) as a pretest and posttest. Analysis of Covariance was used as the statistical method. RESULTS In acceptance and commitment group training, anxiety and depression significantly decreased (p<0/05). These changes were not observed in the control group. CONCLUSION The results showed that group training based on acceptance and commitment therapy is an effective method in reducing anxiety and depression. Hence psychological interventions can be used to reduce psychological difficulties of women with breast cancer.