Comparison of the effectiveness of emotion focused therapy (EFT) and cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) on anxiety sensitivity, pain catastrophizing, experiential avoidance and cognitive emotion regulation in Patients with chronic pain and alexithymia.

Aim and Background: Chronic pain is one of the most common and expensive medical problems. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of emotion focused therapy and cognitive analytic therapy on anxiety sensitivity, pain catastrophizing, experiential avoidance and cognitive emotion regulation in patients with chronic pain and alexithymia. Methods and Materials: This research was experiential study with pre, post-test and follow-up with control group. Among patients suffering from chronic in Isfahan, using available and voluntary sampling method, 36 patients that had top point in alexithymia questionnaire were selected and then were assigned in two groups randomly (each group n=12). Members of first experimental group, received online emotion-focused group therapy and members of second experimental group received online cognitive-analytic group therapy. In this period control group didn’t received any intervention. Instruments were Karnfeskesʼs Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (2001), Solivanʼs Pain Catastrophizing Scale (1995), Taylor and Koksʼes Anxiety Sensitinty Inventort (1998), Acceptance and Action Questionaire (2011) that were completed in 3 stages of pre, post-rest and follow up. Data were analyzed using repeated measure analysis. Findings: Reults showed that the emotion focused therapy has been more effective than the cognitive analytic therapy in improving pain catastrophizing, experiential avoidance and the negative aspect of cognitive emotion regulation (P<0.05). Conclusions: With respect to the effectiveness of these two therapeutic methods on the research variables, these two therapeutic methods can be sought so as to improve the conditions of the patients with chronic pain and alexithymia.