The Comparative Efficacy of Unified Transdiagnostic Protocol (UP) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Protocol (MBSR) on Emotion Regulation and Uncertainty Intolerance in Infertile Women Receiving IVF

J Clin Psychol Med Settings. 2023 Sep;30(3):578-588. doi: 10.1007/s10880-022-09917-1. Epub 2022 Oct 30.

Abstract

Some emotional and social aspects of infertility affect the response of the infertile women to the treatment. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of unified transdiagnostic protocol (UP) and mindfulness-based stress reduction protocol (MBSR) on emotion regulation and uncertainty intolerance in infertile women receiving IVF. Forty-five infertile women with symptoms of anxiety and depression were included in the study. They were randomly assigned in two intervention groups and one control group. The UP was performed for 10 sessions and MBSR was performed for eight sessions. All participants completed emotion regulation and uncertainty intolerance questionnaires at pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. Both interventions had a significant effect on increasing patients' emotion regulation (p ≤ 0.05), but only unified transdiagnostic protocol had a significant effect on intolerance of uncertainty (p ≤ 0.05). Findings show that UP and MBSR have increased emotion regulation. Also UP could reduce the rate of uncertainty intolerance.

Keywords: Emotion regulation; IVF; Infertile; MBSR; Uncertainty intolerance; Unified transdiagnostic protocol.

MeSH terms

  • Emotional Regulation*
  • Female
  • Fertilization in Vitro
  • Humans
  • Infertility, Female* / therapy
  • Mindfulness* / methods
  • Stress, Psychological / complications
  • Stress, Psychological / psychology
  • Stress, Psychological / therapy
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Uncertainty