Effectiveness of Stress Inoculation Therapy Alexithymia and Medication Adherence of Cardiovascular Patients

Abstract

The aim of this study was to the effectiveness of stress inoculation therapy on alexithymia and medication adherence of cardiovascular patients. The quasi-experimental research design was pretest-posttest and follow-up with the nonequivalent control group. The statistical population of this study included all patients with coronary heart disease who referred to the specialized heart hospital in Urmia in 2022 who had referred to this center for medical services. The sample size consisted of 40 people from the mentioned community who were selected by available sampling method and placed in two experimental and control groups. The research instruments included The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (1994) and the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (2008). The results showed that stress inoculation therapy had a significant effect on improving alexithymia and medication adherence in the post-test and follow-up stages. The findings of the present study show that stress inoculation therapy can improve alexithymia and medication adherence in cardiovascular patients.

Keywords

• alexithymia
• cardiovascular patients
• medication adherence
• stress inoculation therapy