Effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy in alexithymia, adaptive behavior, treatment adherence, and biological factors in patients with type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Background and Objective: The diabetic patients experience a plethora of emotional problems besides physiological physical problems, which can affect the course of their disease. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of compassion focused therapy (CFT) on alexithymia, adaptive behavior, treatment adherence, and Blood sugarof patients with type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: In this research, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and control group was adopted. The study population includes patients with type 2 diabetes in Ahvaz in 2020 that referred to my center. The sample size (n=30) was selected using availability sampling method, who were randomly and equally assigned to experimental (CFT), and control group. To collect research data, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Psychosocial Adjustment with Illness Scale, the Treatment Adherence Questionnaire, and the Blood sugar test were used. The CFT group received 8 sessions of intervention (each for 2 h). Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to data analysis. Results: The results showed that CFT had a significant effect on alexithymia (F=9/27, p=0/006), adaptive behavior (F=6/75, p=0/016), and treatment adherence (F=15/26, p=0/001) of patients with type 2 diabetes in the post-test. There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in Blood sugartest (F=0/08, p=0/786). Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that CFT is effective in increasing the level of adaptive behavior and adherence to treatment.