Introduction: Hypertension is a disease that, in addition to biological factors, psychological factors also play a role in it, and suffering from it has many psychological and health consequences. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of comparing positive psychotherapy with cognitive-analytical therapy on anger rumination and its components in hypertensive patients.
Material and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and a control group with 3-month follow-up. All patients suffering from high blood pressure in the first 6 months of 2023 at Laleh Hospital in Tehran (218 people) formed the statistical population of the study, out of which 45 people were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned into three equal groups of 15. To collect data, along with the demographic information checklist-form made by the researcher, Sukhodolsky’s Anger Rumination Scale was also used. Intervention was respectively applied for participants in positive therapy and cognitive-analytical therapy sessions according to Seligman et al.'s and Ryle et al.'s protocols during 8 sessions. Data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA
Results: The scores of anger rumination (η=0.63, F=89.48) and anger afterthoughts (η=0.25, F=9.71), thoughts of revenge (η=0.47, F=25.15), anger memories (η=0.32, F=13.55), and understanding of causes (η=0.46, F=24.59) in the test groups in the post-test stage significantly improved compared to the control group and, this improvement remained stable in the follow-up stage (p<0.05). Also, the results of Benferroni's post hoc test showed no significant difference between the two treatment approaches in terms of effectiveness (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Both treatment approaches had a positive effect on reducing anger rumination indices in hypertensive patients. It is suggested to use more exercises derived from these approaches in planning rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions to improve the emotional-behavioral performance of these patients.