Comparing the effectiveness of Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Anger and Pain Intensity among Women with Breast Cancer

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women.Pain and anger are two of the most common and debilitating consequences of this condition, significantly affecting the quality of life of patients.Therefore, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in alleviating the severity of pain and anger in women with breast cancer.Methods: This research employed an interventional design with a pre-test-posttest structure, including a control group and a two-month follow-up.The statistical population consisted of women with breast cancer who were referred to Mehr Soheila Charity Center in Alborz.A total of 75 eligible participants were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to three groups: two experimental groups (n=25 in each group) and one control group (n=25).The experimental groups received their respective therapies: EAET and ACT.Both therapies were administered separately in the form of group sessions over 8 sessions, each lasting 90 minutes, between the winter of 2023 and the spring of 2024.The control group received no intervention.Data were collected using Siegel's Multidimensional Anger Scale (MAI) and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain.The resulting data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 24) using repeated measures analysis of variance.Results: In the experimental group receiving ACT, the mean and (standard deviation) of anger levels in the post-test was 88.47 (10.93) compared to the pretest 113.28 (12.33), illustrating a significant decrease (P<0.05).This reduction was also sustained in the follow-up phase at 90.04 (10.15).In addition, in this group, the mean pain intensity in the post-test was 3.900.94compared to the pre-test (5.281.00),highlighting a significant decrease (P<0.05).The results of (3.7610.94)continued to the follow-up phase as well.In the experimental group receiving EAET, the mean anger levels in the post-test was 80.4287.76compared to the pre-test (117.9512.24),displaying a significant decrease (P<0.05).This reduction was also sustained in the follow-up phase at 82.908.46.Furthermore, the pain intensity in the post-test was 2.610.49compared to the pre-test (5.7141.05),showing a significant decrease (P<0.05), and the score of pain (2.5710.50)was sustained to the follow-up phase.The EAET has been more effective than ACT. Conclusion:As evidenced by the obtained results, the use of EAET and ACT can be an effective method in the reduction of pain and anger of breast cancer patients.Therefore, it is recommended that these methods be used in treatment centers as group therapy.