effects of self-compassion therapy on perceived stress and anxiety sensitivity in women with multiple sclerosis

Background: multiple sclerosis (ms) leads to depression and anxiety in women and often decreases the quality of life, social interaction, and occupational competency of patients. the present study aimed to investigate the effects of self-compassion therapy on perceived stress and anxiety sensitivity in women with ms.methods: in this field-based, quasi-experimental study, a pretest-posttest control group design was employed. the target population comprised female patients with multiple sclerosis (ms) who sought treatment at ahvaz ms society during a defined recruitment period (october 2022 - january 2023) in ahvaz, khuzestan province, iran. they were diagnosed with ms by psychiatrists and clinical specialists in clinical interviews. a convenience sampling technique was used to recruit a sample of 40 female participants diagnosed with ms. participants were subsequently randomized into an experimental group (n=20) and a control group (n=20). the study employed validated instruments, including the perceived stress questionnaire and the anxiety sensitivity index, to assess the relevant constructs. the analysis of covariance (ancova) was then conducted to examine group differences while controlling for potential confounding variables.results: in the post-test, mean±sd for the perceived stress and anxiety in the experimental group was 24.80±5.08 and 20.32±3.17, demonstrating a significant difference as compared with the control group (43.81±3.57 and 51.07±51.07) (p=0.001). according to the results, self-compassion therapy managed to reduce perceived stress and anxiety sensitivity in the experimental group.conclusion: our results suggested that self-compassion therapy could effectively reduce stress and anxiety in women with ms. therefore, therapy centers are recommended to adopt self-compassion therapy to alleviate the psychological symptoms of ms.