Comparing the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Emotion Regulation in Individuals with Symptoms of Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Ghanbari, Sara; Mihandoost, Zainab; Mami, Shahram; Ahmadi, Vahid; Soleimannejad , Homaira

Volume 15 - Articles-1404 MEJDS (2025) 15: 71 | Back to browse issues page

Research code: IR.IAU.ILAM.REC.1402.041

Ethics code: IR.IAU.ILAM.REC.1402.041

Clinical trials code: IR.IAU.ILAM.REC.1402.041

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Ghanbari S, Mihandoost Z, Mami S, Ahmadi V, Soleimannejad H. Comparing the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Emotion Regulation in Individuals with Symptoms of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. MEJDS 2025; 15 (0) :71-71
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-3629-en.html

Comparing the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Emotion Regulation in Individuals with Symptoms of Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Sara Ghanbari¹

, Zainab Mihandoost ^*¹

, Shahram Mami¹

, Vahid Ahmadi¹

, Homaira Soleimannejad¹

1- Department of Psychology, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran

Abstract: (533 Views)

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a complex psychological condition characterized by excessive preoccupation with perceived or actual defects in physical appearance, which significantly impairs individuals’ quality of life and mental health. One of the central challenges in BDD is difficulties in emotion regulation, which can exacerbate symptom severity and disorder progression. Emotion regulation refers to a range of cognitive and behavioral strategies used to maintain, reduce, or enhance emotional experience. Individuals employ various strategies to modify or adjust their emotional responses when confronted with stressful events. Difficulty with emotion regulation results in the inability to monitor, evaluate, understand, and change emotional reactions in a way that is beneficial for normal functioning. The use of effective therapeutic interventions to reduce the problems of people with body dysmorphic disorder is of particular importance. Given the critical role of emotion regulation in therapeutic outcomes, the primary aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two prominent therapeutic approaches —Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — in enhancing emotion regulation skills among individuals exhibiting symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder.
Methods: The quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design with a two-month follow-up, including a control group. The statistical population consisted of all individuals who visited beauty clinics in Kermanshah City, Iran, during the year 2023. From this population, 54 eligible volunteers were recruited via convenience sampling and randomly assigned into three groups: the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) group, the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) group, and a control group, with 18 participants in each group. The inclusion criteria were as follows: willingness to participate and signed informed consent, presence of body dysmorphic disorder symptoms based on clinical interview and a cutoff score of 20 on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale Modified for BDD (BDD-YBOCS) (Phillips et al, 1997), aged between 20 and 50 years, minimum education level of high school diploma, and ability to attend therapy sessions regularly. The exclusion criteria included severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, unstable concurrent psychiatric medication use, history of similar psychotherapy within the last six months, and absence from more than two intervention sessions. Data were collected using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) (Gratz & Roemer, 2004). The first experimental group received ACT over 4 weeks (8 sessions of 90 minutes each) following the protocol by Hayes et al. (2013). The second experimental group underwent CBT for 5 weeks (10 sessions of 90 minutes each) based on the Beck manual (2011). Meanwhile, the control group received no intervention. Following the administration of pretest, posttest, and follow-up assessments, data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni post-hoc tests in SPSS version 26, with a significance level set at p<0.05.
Results: The results indicated that the effect of group (p<0.001), time (p<0.001), and the interaction effect of time and group (p<0.001) on the overall score of emotion regulation and the components of non-acceptance of emotional responses, difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior, impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness, limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and lack of emotional clarity, were found to be significant. The results revealed an important difference between the mean pretest scores of the emotion regulation variable and its components, and the mean posttest and follow-up scores in the experimental groups (p<0.001). However, the mean posttest scores of emotion regulation and its components did not differ significantly from the follow-up scores in the experimental groups (p > 0.05). In addition, a significant difference was observed between the ACT and CBT in emotion regulation and its components (p<0.001).
Conclusion: According to the findings, CBT is considered a more effective approach for improving emotion regulation in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder symptoms compared to ACT. So, it is recommended that CBT be given greater attention by therapists and mental health professionals when working with individuals exhibiting body dysmorphic disorder symptoms.

Keywords: Acceptance and commitment therapy, Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Emotion regulation, Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder symptoms

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Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Psychology

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