Sadra Medical Journal

Comparative Efficacy of Mindful Self-Compassion Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Alexithymia and Pain Anxiety in Employed Women with Migraine

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Adeleh Yousefi Siakoucheh 1
Mohammad Narimani 2
Nader Hajloo 2

1 Department of General Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Mohaghegh Ardabili University, Ardabil, Iran

2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Mohaghegh Ardabili University, Ardabil, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30476/smsj.2025.102013.1508
Abstract
Introduction: Migraine headaches, as a neurogenic disorder, significantly impact patients’ psychological well-being. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Mindful Self-Compassion Therapy (MSCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in addressing alexithymia and pain anxiety among employed women with migraine.
Methods: This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest framework with a control group. The target population comprised employed women suffering from migraine headaches in Rasht (Iran), in 2023. A purposive sampling method was used to select 60 participants, who were then randomly allocated into three equal groups (n=20 per group, two intervention groups, and one control group). Assessment tools included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), measuring difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking, and the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS-20). Both intervention groups received eight 90-minute sessions of their respective therapies. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) in SPSS software (version 26).
Results: After controlling for pretest scores, significant between-group differences emerged in posttest measures of alexithymia components (difficulty identifying emotions, difficulty describing emotions, externally oriented thinking) and pain anxiety. However, no significant differences (P>0.05) were observed between the MSCT and ACT groups’ outcomes at post-test.
Conclusion: Both MSCT and ACT demonstrated comparable efficacy in mitigating the psychological consequences of migraine, particularly in reducing alexithymia and pain anxiety.

Keywords

Self compassion
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Affective Symptoms
Pain
Anxiety
Migraine Disorders
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Sadra Medical Journal
Volume 13, Issue 2
Spring 2025
Pages 216-229

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