Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on depression and sleep quality in painful diabetic neuropathy: a randomized clinical trial

Neuropathic pain is a complicated phenomenon in patients with diabetes. These patients have many problems, especially depression and Sleep disturbance. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on depression and Sleep disturbance in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy.

The current paper was conducted according to the clinical trial method with 50 participants. Participants were separated into intervention and control groups randomly. Based on the diagnosis of neurologists, all participants received standard medications to regulate neuropathic pain. The intervention group received ACT for eight sessions. The results were evaluated in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. The tools used were the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and Beck’s depression inventory. Statistical analysis includes descriptive statistics, and repeated-measures (ANOVA) conducted by SPSS (version 26) software. Results: Results showed that in the intervention group, the treatment led to improved depressive symptoms (F = 6.81, P < 0.05). Besides, for sleep quality, treatment in all subscales, except for the Hypnotic medicine subscale, significantly improved the intervention group’s situations. It was also observed that the overall quality of sleep in the ACT group showed a more significant improvement (P < 0.05). All the above results remained the same until the end of the follow-up period (P < 0.05).

ACT, as a complementary treatment, can improve the psychiatric symptoms and problems in people with neuropathic pain. Therefore, it is necessary to include psychotherapy services along with medical treatment in outpatient and hospitalization units.

IRCT201802050388​630N4. Registered in 02/05/2018.