Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Reducing Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation in Iranian Veterans Referred to a Military Psychiatric Hospital

Abstract Background: Veterans are more exposed to mental disorders, especially anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt, due to the important role they played in defending their country. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on reducing anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Methods: This study was conducted following a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study design in 2020. The study included two groups, the experimental group and the control group awaiting treatment. The participants in this study consisted of 20 veterans who were selected using availability sampling and randomly assigned to two groups, the experimental group and the control group awaiting treatment (10 in each group). The instruments used in this study included the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI-II), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSSI), and a researcher-made demographic information questionnaire. Participants in the experimental group received 12 sessions of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for two hours per week, and participants in the control group awaiting treatment did not receive any intervention and received only routine medications. The pre-test and post-test were administered to both groups. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistical indices and the univariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) using SPSS 22 software. Results: The study results showed that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) contributed substantially to managing and reducing anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and suicidal ideation in veterans in the experimental group. After the intervention, the mean scores of the experimental group on the variables of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation decreased as compared to the control group awaiting treatment, and these differences were statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusions: The results of this study revealed that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) was effective in reducing the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation in veterans.