The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Anxiety, Depression, and Stress in Patients with Spinal Cord Injuries

Background: Since the number of patients with spinal cord injuries is increasing, paying attention to these patients’ psychological problems is a priority. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety, depression, and stress in patients with spinal cord injuries.Methods: The present study had utilized a single-subject approach in the form of multiple baseline design. The samples were selected using purposive sampling based on convenience sampling method. The statistical population included all patients in Hamadan city with spinal cord injuries who referred to the Shahid Beheshti hospital in this city. The total numbers of them were 181 people in 2016. The researchers informed the patients about the research and presented them with informed consent forms. Among 50 screened patients, five patients (4 males and one female) selected and entered the treatment process: anxiety, depression, and stress measured by Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). Acceptance and commitment therapy conducted in 8 treatment sessions on anxiety, depression, and stress in patients with spinal cord injuries.Results: The results of the graphic and chart analysis, reliable change index (RCI) and the percentage of recovery showed that acceptance and commitment therapy affected anxiety, depression, and stress in the patients with spinal cord injuries.Conclusion: Findings indicated that acceptance and commitment therapy improved people’s mental health by working on acceptance and mindfulness processes and behavior change processes. This therapy decreased anxiety, depression, and stress in patients with spinal cord lesion

The Prevalence of Personality Disorders among Emergency Nurses Based on MMPI-2 Questionnaire; a Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: The prevalence of behavioral disorders is substantially higher in stressful working environments such as emergency departments. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of personality disorders among emergency nurses.Methods: In the present epidemiologic study, the prevalence of personality disorders among emergency nurses of three educational hospitals, Tehran, Iran, were evaluated based on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) test. After the questionnaires were filled, data were entered to a special software for MMPI-2 test and the final result was interpreted based on the opinion of a clinical psychologist. Findings were reported using descriptive statistics.Results: 102 emergency nurses with the mean age of 30.2 ± 5.6 years were enrolled (100% female; 100% with master’s degree in nursing). The mean working time and experience of studied nurses were 210.8 ± 47.9 hours/month (130-370) and 4.1 ± 3.6 years (1-20), respectively. 32 (31.4%) cases showed symptoms of personality disorders The most common personality disorder detected in this study was somatization with 8.8%, hysteria with 6.9% prevalence, and pollyannaish with 4.9%. Among the studied factors only recent history of unpleasant event has significant correlation with existence of personality disorders (p = 0.015).Conclusion: The present study showed that somatization, hysteria, and pollyannaish were the most common personality disorders among the emergency nurses. History of an unpleasant event in the past year was the only effective factor in existence of personality disorders in the studied nurses

The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Depression, Alexithymia and Hypertension in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

   Background: According to recent studies, cardiovascular diseases have been the most prevalent cause of death and disability worldwide, one of the most hidden types of which is coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease is mainly psychosomatic in nature and the role of psychological (especially personality) and social factors in its occurrence is very important. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on depression, alexithymia, and hypertension in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Methods: The was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design, with a control group and baseline assessment after intervention and three-month follow-up. The statistical population included all patients with cardiovascular diseases referred to Imam Reza hospital in Amol city from July to December 2020. 24 patients were selected as the sample using purposeful sampling and assigned to equal experimental and control groups randomly. The study tools were a researcher-made demographic questionnaire (2019), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (1994), Beck Depression Inventory (1990), and acceptance and commitment treatment protocol (Hayes, 2012). Data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: We found that ACT had a significant effect on reducing depression, alexithymia, and hypertension. Conclusion: Patients who participated in ACT sessions had lower rates of depression, alexithymia, and hypertension

Effectiveness of Protocol based on Integrated View on Psychological Distress in Elderly

Abstract Background: In the modern societies, the seniors are as one of the growing social groups that according to the age pyramid have increasingly become important. Accordingly, this study was conducted with the purpose of investigating the effectiveness of protocol based on integrated view on reducing psychological distress in the elderly. Materials and Methods: The type of this study was semi-experimental with pre-test post-test plan along with the control group. The statistical population includes all elderly that referred to Karaj Takht-e Jamshid hospital in the second half of the year 2016. Among them, 30 people were selected in form of available; then, randomly were placed in two 15 people experimental and control groups. Control group were treated based on integrated view protocol (three combination therapies consisting of cognitive- behavioral therapy, spiritual therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy). In this research, the short form questionnaire of psychological distress (DASS) was used for gathering the data in two stages of pre-test and post-test. The data were analyzed by using SPSS19 software and was analyzed by the covariance analysis method. Results: The results of covariance analysis showed that the protocol based on integrated view has led to the statistical significant difference (p<0.05) between the pre-test and post-test stages in the psychological distress score. Conclusion: According to the obtained results, the protocol-based on integrated view can be used as a proper and effective treatment method for the reduction of psychological distress in seniors

The prevalence of personality disorders in nurses: role of the workplace environment

Objective: Personality disorder is a multi-factorial condition in which workplace stress plays a significant role. This study was undertaken due to scarcity of information regarding the role of workplace stress which can cause personality disorder among nurses. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of personality disorders in nurses working in different hospital departments and assess factors affecting its onset. Methods: In this cross-sectional study the personality disorders of nurses working in various hospital departments were evaluated based on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) test. After the completion of questionnaires, data were entered to MMPI-2 test’s special software and the final result was interpreted based on the opinion of a clinical psychologist. Finally, multivariate logistic regression model was used to assess the independent effect of the mentioned factors on prevalence of personality disorders in nurses. Results: We gathered data from 2 groups of participants (n = 206). These groups included nurses in emergency departments and nurses in other hospital units. The mean of age was 32.5 ± 6.9 years. Overall, 54.3% (n = 38) of non-emergency nurses and 45.7% (n = 32) of emergency nurses showed symptoms of personality disorders respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that history of a serious accident or trauma increased the odds of detecting personality disorders up to 3.8 times (odds ratio [OR] = 3.84; 95% CI: 1.33-11.06; P = 0.01). In addition, an unpleasant incident in the past year increased it up to 2.2 times (OR = 2.23; 95% CI: 1.18 – 4.22; P = 0.01) in both groups. Conclusion: The present study showed that there was no significant difference between emergency departments and other units of hospitals regarding the prevalence of personality disorders among nurses. Overall, somatization, hysteria, and pollyannaish were the most common personality disorders among the studied populatio