The comparison of the effectiveness of approach CBT and ACT on sexual function and sexual schemas in postmenopausal women

The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of approach CBT and ACT on sexual function and sexual schemas in postmenopausal women.

The research method is semi-experimental and the research design is three groups with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up 3 months later.

The statistical population of study consist of postmenopausal women that have menopause in 5 past year and have sexual problems and are attending in the health center in zanjan in 2020. The sample consist of 45 individuals who will randomly assign to three groups of 15. In the implementation of the research, the control group will not receive any intervention, while the other two groups are the experimental ones, one of which will receiv cognitive behavioral therapy and the other group will receiv acceptance and commitment treatment for 8 sessions.

Inclusion Criteria: Married women; Menopausal women that have menopause in 5 past year; Sexual performance score below 28; Completed Secondary education level; monogamy. Exclusion Criteria: Having known physical and mental illness according; Consumption of drugs affecting sexual relationships; Addiction; Participate in other similar studies; Occurrence of unpleasant event.

Intervention Group 1: CBT - (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy): Treatment sessions are performed in 8 sessions (each session approximately 2 hours per week ) according to the protocol (Kaplan, 1974; Kennedy, 2012). Intervention Group 2: (ACT - Acceptance and Commitment-Based Therapy): Treatment sessions are performed in 8 sessions (each session approximately 2 hours per week) according to the protocol (Kaplan 1974; Foreman and Herbert 2008). Control group: No intervention is performed and is only for comparison with the intervention groups.

sexual function

The researcher randomly selected 3 centers out of 18 health centers in Zanjan by writing numbers on paper by drawing lots, then by referring to the mentioned health center, 45 of them were selected by available sampling method and coded from 1-45. Using randomly assigned block allocation methods, they were divided into 3 groups of 15 people (2 intervention groups and one control group). How to do it: First we encode the groups based on the Latin letters as follows: A = cognitive-behavioral therapy, B = acceptance and commitment treatment and C = control group In this study with three groups A, B and C, the following six groups were created: And we assign the numbers 1 to 6 to each: ABC-ACB-BAC-BCA-CAB-CBA Then we contract using a table of random numbers, whenever the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, respectively. It appeared that one of these blocks would be selected, and if another number appeared, we assumed it to be null and void and moved on to the next selection. In fact, we get a random sequence of numbers with a table of random numbers, which we consider the order of the assigned allocation for each number. In this way, the number of people in the groups is almost equal.