The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Emotional Dysregulation in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Single Case Study

Introduction: Patients with multiple sclerosis(MS) experience many physical and emotional disorders. Therefore, this study aimed the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on emotional dysregulation in multiple sclerosis patients. Methods: The research method in present study was based on the practical aim, the experiment of type the single-subject with ABA design. The statistical population included all individuals 20 to 50 years with multiple sclerosis disorder who attended the MS Association of Tehran in 2022. Among them, 5 patients with multiple sclerosis (two men and three women) were selected based on inclusion criteria and by purposive sampling. The multiple sclerosis intervention was performed for each patient in 8 sessions of 2.5 hours. The research instrument included demographic questionnaire and difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS).  The data were analyzed using visual analysis at both within-condition and between- condition levels in SPSS and Excel software.   Results: The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy intervention reduced the emotional dysregulation in patients with multiple sclerosis. So that the scores had a significant decrease compared to the baseline scores in the 8 intervention sessions and follow-up after the treatment (P<0.05).     Conclusions: The results of this study showed that acceptance and commitment therapy can be effective in reducing the emotional dysregulation in multiple sclerosis patients; And it is suggested that therapists and counselors use this treatment in order to improve the emotional dysregulation of these patients along with other therapeutic interventions.