Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the
effectiveness of transference focused psychotherapy and
acceptance and commitment on promoting the mental health
of staff working in hospitals covered by social security in
Tehran province.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a quasiexperimental pretest and posttest. The statistical population of
the present study was the personnel working in hospitals
covered by social security in Tehran province. 120 of these
personnel from three hospitals were randomly divided into two
experimental groups and one control group (40 people in each
group). All three groups answered the Mental Health
Questionnaire (SCL 90 R) as a pretest. Then, the transferoriented treatment group and the acceptance and commitment
treatment group (during 8 sessions) received experimental
intervention and the control group did not receive any kind of
intervention. At the end of the sessions, all three groups
answered the questions of the mental health questionnaire
again. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze
the collected data.
Findings: The results of the present study showed that both
transference focused psychotherapy and acceptance and
commitment are effective in promoting the mental health of
staff working in hospitals covered by social security. There is
also a difference between the effectiveness of transference
focused psychotherapy and acceptance and commitment
therapy in promoting the mental health of staff working in
hospitals covered by social security. Thus, in the mental health
of the transference focused psychotherapy group, the
components of anxiety, morbid fear, psychosis and paranoid
gained significantly lower scores compared to the acceptance
and commitment group.
Conclusion: Both methods can be used by counselors and
therapists to promote the mental health of staff working in
hospitals covered by social security.