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Abstract
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy that predominantly teaches clients acceptance and mindfulness skills, as well as values clarification and enactment skills. Australian treatment guideline providers have been cautious in recognising as empirically supported. This article reviews evidence from randomised controlled trials published since Öst's review, and examines the extent to which the methodology of research has improved since. Since 2008, research has improved its use of adherence and competence monitoring. Good‐quality studies could be considered to offer National Health and Medical Research Council Level evidence for chronic pain, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and a subset of other anxiety disorders (panic disorder, social phobia, and generalised anxiety disorder). The majority of studies demonstrated that significantly improved primary outcomes but used comparison conditions that did not rule out therapy‐unspecific factors, including use of concurrent treatments, as explanations for the improvements. Recommendations for future research are presented.
Abstract
Funding: None.
Conflict of interest: All authors are members of the APS ACT Interest Group.
Funding: None.
Conflict of interest: All authors are members of the APS ACT Interest Group.
Notes
Funding: None.
Conflict of interest: All authors are members of the APS ACT Interest Group.
1. Excludes Flaxman and Bond (Citation2010b), Butryn et al. (Citation2011), and Brown et al. (Citation2011), which were included in quantitative methodology ratings but excluded from this clinical discussion.
