Effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy in Changing the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Among Veterans’ Wives With Chronic Ptsd due to IRAN-IRAQ war

Abstract

Background: Various studies on the wives of the veterans with PTSD show that these wives, after some time of joint life with these veterans, experience a lot of psychological problems. The object of the present study has been evaluating the effectiveness of mindfulness based cognitive therapy in changing the cognitive emotion regulation strategies among veterans’ wives with chronic PTSD. Methods: In this study, semi-experimental design pretest-post test was done with the control group. The statistical sample included 40 of veterans’ wives with chronic PTSD who had the criteria for entering into this study and was selected by an objective-based sampling method. These participants were randomly put in 2 groups of 20 individuals including the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group was trained in 8 sessions of 2 hours and 30 minutes. The measurement tool was CERQ scale. The results were analyzed using T-Test method. Findings: The results showed that the eight training sessions were effective in changing the experimental group’s cognitive emotion regulation strategies (P<0.01). Discussion: The obtained results suggest that the therapeutic sessions based on mindfulness strategies were effective in changing the cognitive emotion regulation strategies among veteran’s wives with chronic PTSD. In other words, these strategies increased the use of positive strategies (positive refocus and programming, positive evaluation, acceptance) and decreased the use of negative strategies (self-blame, blaming others, rumination, catastrophizing).