Comparison of the Effectiveness of Compassion-focused Therapy and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction in Reducing Type D Personality Traits in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease

Background and Aim: Coronary patients with type D personality have high stress and inhibit negative emotions. Despite receiving similar medical procedures as other coronary patients they show a slower recovery process and recurrent heart attacks. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in reducing type D personality traits in patients with coronary heart disease. Materials and Methods: The present research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest- post-test-follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population of this study was all patients with coronary heart disease in Rajai Alborz Hospital in Karaj City, Iran, in 2019. A total of 45 people were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to three groups under the title of CFT, MBSR, and control group. Subjects responded to the type D personality scale by Denollet (2005) for pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. CFT and MBSR were each held in 8 sessions of 90 minutes. In the present study, the statistical method of repeated measure analysis of variance in SPSS software, version 18, was used to analyze the data with 0.05 and 0.01 significance levels. Results: After the intervention, the average score of type D traits symptoms of the test group (73.26 with a standard deviation of 4.49) was significantly lower than the control group (53.36 with a standard deviation of 27.4). CFT and MBSR had a reducing effect on type D personality traits over time (P<0.001). Also, a significant difference was observed between the effectiveness of CFT and MBSR in reducing type D personality traits (P=0.020). Conclusion: CFT and MBSR are both effective in treating patients with type D personality but CFT is more effective.