The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on the Reduction of Perceived Stress in the Elderly Afflicted by Chronic Pain

Abstract

Chronic pain seems to be one of the chronic diseases associated with the elderly which causes stress in the elderly. Researchers are looking to treat this stress through non-pharmacological methods. Therefore, the present research­ aimed to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on the reduction of perceived stress in the elderly afflicted with chronic pain. This research was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and control group design. The statistical population included all the elderly with chronic pain living in Mashhad during 2017. For this aim, 24 of the elderly were chosen through a convenience sampling method along with inclusion criteria and placed randomly into two groups of experimental and control (with 12 members). Research tools consisted of the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale and the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Acceptance and commitment therapy was administered to the experiment group in eight 90-minute sessions, while the control grope received no intervention at the same time. Research data were analyzed using the univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results indicated the reduction of scores of perceived stress in the experimental group in comparison to that of the control group (P<0.05). Thus, acceptance and commitment therapy appears to be effective in the reduction of perceived stress in the elderly afflicted with chronic pain. The findings demonstrate the necessity of using acceptance and commitment therapy to reduce perceived stress in the elderly. Therefore, acceptance and commitment therapy is suggested to be used to provide psychological services for the elderly.

Keywords

• acceptance and commitment therapy perceived stress
• elderly
• chronic pain