A Comparison of Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Psychological Flexibility of HIV Patients in Imam Khomeini Hospital

Background: HIV patients are exposed to many psychological problems, including psychological inflexibility. It seems that psychological interventions can be effective to improve the psychological state of these patients. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to compare the effectiveness of interventions with 2 methods of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on psychological flexibility of HIV patients in Imam Khomeini Hospital. Methods: The present study was a descriptive-analytical study that was performed as an intervention in the period from May to January in 2020 on 54 HIV patients referred to Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) center of Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex. The samples of the study mode were selected by available sampling and randomly divided in 3 groups of 18 people based on CFT, MBSR session and the control group. Each treatment was presented to 2 experimental groups for 10 sessions per week and the control group was placed on a waiting lists. Patients' psychological flexibility was assessed by the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire- II "AAQ-II" in 3 stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. SPSS 23 software and analysis of covariance, bonferoni test and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that CFT and MBSR were effective on increasing psychological flexibility of HIV patients (p < 0.01). Comparison of the effectiveness of the 2 therapies showed that CFT caused a further increase on increasing psychological flexibility (p < 0.01). Changes in follow-up 3 months after treatment also remained stable (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Findings of the study show that the use of therapies in this study can be effective in planning psychological interventions to promote and improve mental health in HIV patients.