The Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy on Emotion Regulation Styles and Severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Women With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Objectives This study aimed to investigate the effect of emotion-focused therapy on emotional regulation styles and severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in women with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Methods The present study has a quasi-experimental design with pre-test-post-test and control group with follow-up. The statistical population included all women with OCD referring to clinics and counseling centers of Ahvaz City, Iran. In order to select the eligible samples, 30 women were recruited from the patients referred to the treatment centers by convenience sampling method, but some of them were excluded due to discontinuation of treatment sessions. Finally, a sample of 24 patients were evaluated in experimental group (12 subjects) and control group (12 subjects). To collect data, we used the Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale and affective styles questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using covariance analysis in SPSS V. 22. Results Multivariate ANOVA test results showed that there was significant difference between test and study groups in terms of concealing style (10.0≥P, 07.7=F) and severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (100.0≥P, 84.02=F) after intervention. Moreover, between female patients in both group, a significant difference was found with respect to concealing style (50.0≥P, 06.2=F) and severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (100.0≥P, 99.92=F) during follow-up period. Conclusion Based on the results, emotion-focused therapy is an effective treatment to reduce the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in patients with OCD.