Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Coping skill and Problem Solving among Depression

Background: Depressive disorder represents a key contributor to the global burden of mental illness due to its relatively high lifetime prevalence, frequent comorbidity, and disability rates. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is an intervention aimed at improving psychological flexibility and the ability to adapt to change so as to make the individual able to deal with various problems that become stressors. Aim: The present study aims to assess and compare the coping skill and problem solving in the depressive patients pre and post intervention on the application of acceptance and commitment therapy. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and follow-up design with control group. The sample consists of a total of 20 patients were diagnosed with depression using a purposive sampling selected from the outpatient department of the RINPAS, Kanke, Ranchi, India. Further these patients divided into two groups as experimental group (10) and control group (10). Tools used Brief coping and Problem-Solving questionnaire. Results: Result of the current study revealed that the experiment group of depression patients improved in different domains of problem solving and coping after the application of acceptance and commitment therapy treatment and exhibited enhanced problem solving and coping skills as compared to control group. Conclusion: Acceptance and commitment therapy allows patients to have an optimistic attitude on life, accept difficult events, deal with the present, and adopt suitable behaviours to cope with negative thoughts and feelings by enhancing psychological flexibility.