The Effect of Mindfulness Therapy on Tolerance of Uncertainty and Thought-Action Fusion in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Background and Purpose: Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a serious disorder that affects psychological, communicative, social, and emotional processes. Accordingly, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of mindfulness therapy on tolerance of uncertainty, and thought-action fusion in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Method: This was a semi-experimental study with pre-test-post-test control group design with a follow-up of two months. The sample consisted of 30 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder in Isfahan during the academic year of 2017-2018.They were selected by purposeful sampling. The experimental group received mindfulness intervention in 10 sessions of 75 minutes during three months. Maudsley obsession questionnaire (Hajson and Rachman, 1980), tolerance of uncertainty (Mcleen, 1993), and thought-action fusion questionnaire (Shefran et.al, 1996) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA. Results: The results showed that mindfulness therapy had a significant effect on the tolerance of uncertainty and thought-action fusion in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (F = 11.13, F = 79.98, P <0.001). Also, the effect of this treatment is maintained during the follow-up phase (P <0/001). The degree of statistical effect of mindfulness therapy on tolerance of uncertainty and thought-action fusion were 40% and 73% respectively. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that by creating knowledge of thoughts and feelings, the mindfulness therapy can increase tolerance of uncertainty and reduce the thought-action fusion in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder.