The effectiveness of behavioral activation therapy on disturbance tolerance and negative hyperemotional dimensions of female patients with multiple sclerosis

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of behavioral activation therapy on disturbance tolerance and negative hyperemotional dimensions of female patients with multiple sclerosis. The research was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test, and control group with a two-month follow-up. The population of female patients with multiple sclerosis. The sample consisted of 30 of these women who were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to two control and experimental groups (15 people in each group). The intervention group received behavioral activation therapy during 8 sessions of 90 minutes once a week. The data were collected with Simmons's (2005) disturbance tolerance scale (DTS) and Meta-emotional Mitmansgruber (2009) (MES) and analyzed by repeated measurement method. The results showed that the main effects of the group are significant for tolerance of confusion and negative overexcitement; That is, the two groups differ in terms of the average tolerance of disturbance and negative overexcitement. The main effect of disturbance tolerance is three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. In negative emotions, the main effect of the three stages of pre-test, post-test, and follow-up was reported as significant and lasting (p<0.05); The size of the effect also shows the effect of 63.4 percent of the intervention on increasing the tolerance of disturbance and reducing negative overexcitement. It can be concluded that this intervention was able to increase tolerance of disturbance and reduce negative overexcitement.