Does acceptance and commitment therapy help women with PMS manage emotions and unhelpful thoughts?

Background: The current study aimed to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on emotion regulation in two subscales of emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal and dysfunctional attitudes of female students with PMS. Methods: The statistical population of this quasi-experimental research with nonequivalent control group and pretest-posttest design with a 2-month follow-up included female students with PMS at the Islamic Azad University, Doroud branch in the academic year 2022-2023. The sample size included 30 PMS students who met the inclusion criteria for the study and were selected through an available sampling method and randomly assigned in two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received acceptance and commitment therapy during eight weeks and a two-hour group session every week. The obtained data were analyzed using the statistical test of mixed ANCOVA, SPSS version 22 statistical software. Results: The mean scores of ACT group in the variable of emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal have been increased and in the variable of dysfunctional attitude has been decreased after the therapy in the post-test and follow-up. It shows that the therapy has been significantly effective on the women with PMS in the two variables of emotion regulation and dysfunctional attitudes. Conclusion: The acceptance and commitment therapy has caused the emotional suppression and reappraisal variables which are two subscales of emotion regulation to be increased and dysfunctional attitudes to be decreased in the post-test and follow-up stages. It means that ACT has been effective for women with PMS to reduce some of their symptoms, and it can be used in the clinics to help them.

Reproduced under CC-BY.