comparison of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy on suppressed anger and self-compassion in women with chronic pain disorder

Background: chronic pain means having pain for a long time. it lasts longer than the expected recovery time or happens with a long-lasting health problem. the study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (act) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (cbt) on women with chronic pain disorder. methods: this quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest control design and a one-month follow-up. the statistical population of this research included all women suffering from chronic pain disorder in tehran city, iran, from july to october 2022-2023. 60 participants were selected using purposive sampling and randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group (n = 20 women per group). the first experimental group received act (eleventh 90-minute sessions per week), the second experimental group received cbt (eight 90-minute sessions per week), while the control group was on the waiting list. the research instruments included the state-trait anger expression inventory-2 (staxi-2) and the self-compassion scale-short form (scs-sf), which were administered before and after the intervention. the collected data were analyzed by the repeated measures analysis of variance (anova) in spss software. results: act and cbt significantly influenced the suppressed anger and enhanced self-compassion of women with chronic pain (p < 0.001). conclusion: findings have shown that act and cbt have a positive effect on decreased suppressed anger and enhanced self-compassion in women with chronic pain. therefore, act and cbt methods should be used in special counseling for women with chronic pain in the hospital.