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Abstract
This study focuses on the impact of the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on older adults with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in Abuja metropolitan area Nigeria. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a condition consisting of disturbing mental obsessions in which the person is excessively worried or unwanted thoughts or impulses are constantly repeated, and compulsions, which are repetitive behaviours. Compulsions manifest themselves as behaviours such as repeating certain rules, patterns or rituals, checking or cleaning a certain number of times. Individuals with OCD experience serious problems in their daily lives because of these thoughts and behaviours. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on the person's inner experiences as part of the cognitive behavioural therapy approach. ACT aims to help the person to accept disturbing thoughts, feelings and physical sensations quietly and with understanding, and to cope with them in a more flexible way. Research shows that ACT is effective in reducing OCD symptoms and is therefore considered as an effective therapy option in the treatment of OCD. Furthermore, it focus on how the integration and combination of ACT with other treatment modalities can benefit in the field of OCD treatment. In this way, more effective and personalised methods can be developed in the treatment of OCD patients. A single case design was used in five older adults with obsessive compulsive disorder. Results suggested the significant decreases in all measures in five older patients and these results maintained at 1-month follow up. Process of treatment and results from this study suggest that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can be effective intervention for difficult thoughts, feelings, and behaviors seen in OCD. The results of meta-analysis on the effect of ACT alone showed that ACT had a better effect on OCD than other treatment methods (MD = -3.76, Z = 4.41, P≤0.05). Meta-analysis results of ACT combined SSRIs therapy showed that ACT combined therapy was better than SSRIs alone (MD = 7.18, Z =6.59, P ≤ 0.05). The study concluded that acceptance commitment therapy can effectively treat OCD.