Effect of a group-based acceptance and commitment therapy intervention on cognitive emotion regulation and psychological flexibility in patients with bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the efficacy of group-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in improving cognitive emotion regulation (CER) and psychological flexibility (PF) in patients with bipolar disorder (BD).

METHODS

Fifty-five Chinese patients with BD type I or II from the inpatient psychiatric unit of a Grade-A tertiary psychiatric hospital in China participated in the intervention. Twenty-eight patients were randomized to the ACT+ treatment as usual (TAU) group (10 group sessions) and 27 to TAU alone. The Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire-Fusion (CFQ-F) and Acceptance and Action Questionnaire II (AAQ-II) were used to assess the participants' CER ability, PF and mania and depressive symptoms at a pre-treatment time-point (baseline) and a post-treatment time-point (5 weeks). ANOVA analysis was conducted to compare the scores before and after treatment in the two groups.

RESULTS

The ACT + TAU group demonstrated more substantial improvements in CER, PF, as well as residual mania and depression, compared to the TAU group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that combining ACT intervention into treatment as usual can play better results in enhancing the CER ability and PF of patients with BD in a clinical setting.