psychosocial adjustment to illness

Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive nervous system disease. The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on the psychosocial adjustment to illness and expanded disability of multiple sclerosis patients. Method: This research was a pretest-posttest controlled quasi-experimental study with a three-month and six-month follow-up. The research population was comprised of all MS patients in Tehran in 2021. Using the purposeful sampling method, 60 people were selected and randomly assigned to ACT and CBT experimental groups and the control group. Drogits' (1986) Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS) and expanded disability status scale (EDSS) were used to collect data. The ACT group received eight 120-minute sessions, the CBT group received eight one-hour sessions, and no intervention was provided for the control group. Covariance analysis and post hoc tests were used to analyze the data. Results: The results demonstrated that ACT had a higher effect than CBT in enhancing psychosocial adjustment to illness (P=0.024) and reducing expanded disability (P=0.024), which has been constant in the follow-up stages. Conclusion: In general, both ACT and CBT interventions significantly improved the psychosocial adjustment to illness and reduced the expanded disability of MS patients. However, it is suggested that professionals use ACT intervention for more effectiveness.