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

Abstract

Background and Objective: Diabetic patients experience a plethora of emotional problems in addition to 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) in alexithymia, adaptive behavior, treatment adherence, and blood sugar of patients with type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: In this study, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and control group was adopted. The study population included the patients with type 2 diabetes in Ahvaz, Iran, in 2020 referring to my center. The sample size (n=30) was selected using convenience sampling, and the participants were randomly and equally assigned to the experimental (CFT) and control groups. To collect study data, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale, Treatment Adherence Questionnaire, and blood sugar test were used. The CFT group received eight sessions of intervention (each session lasting for 2 h). Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. Results: The obtained 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 posttest. There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the blood sugar test (F=0.08;P=0.786). Conclusion: Based on the obtained findings, it can be concluded that CFT is effective in increasing the level of adaptive behavior and treatment adherence.