Effectiveness of group-based acceptance and commitment therapy on the difficulty emotional regulation and distress tolerance patients with essential hypertension

AIM: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on two factors difficult emotion regulation and distress tolerance in women with essential hypertension. METHODS: Research was semi-experimental while the statistic society of this research was women with hypertension in Isfahan. Forty patients were selected and randomly placed into control and experimental groups. Questionnaires used were difficulty in emotion regulation, distress tolerance scale. The intervention group received 8 sessions of 2 h acceptance and commitment group-based therapy. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that the intervention group after receiving the intervention, showed a significant decrease in terms of emotion regulation difficulties compared to the control group (P ≤ 0.04). Furthermore, regarding distress tolerance scores improved significantly in the intervention group (P ≤ 0.00). CONCLUSION: The results indicated that ACT is an effective method to improve difficult emotion regulation and distress tolerance in patients with essential hypertension.