Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) both decreased symptoms and improved emotional competencies among patients with MS, according to study findings published in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. Dena Sadeghi-Bahmani, PhD, and colleagues examined the impact of these two strategies among patients with MS (81.6% females; mean age, 38.88) who were randomly assigned to an 8-week ACT program, an 8-week MBSR program, or a wait-list control group. Individuals in the MBSR and ACT groups experienced a reduction in MS symptoms (medium effect size for insomnia, fatigue, and paresthesia; large effect size for depression) and an improvement in emotional competencies (large effect size) compared with the control group. At the study’s end, outcome improvements did not differ between the ACT and MBSR groups. “Psychotherapeutic interventions such as these should be considered as a means of decreasing symptoms and increasing emotional competencies among individuals with MS,” Dr. SadeghiBahmani and colleagues wrote.
