Synergistic Interventions: A Comparative Analysis of Cognitive Behavioral Psychodrama Group Therapy and Reality Therapy for Augmenting Distress Tolerance in Students with Love Trauma Syndrome

Background: Students with emotional trauma symptoms often struggle with distress tolerance, necessitating the exploration of effective therapeutic interventions. Objectives: This study aims to explicitly compare the efficacy of cognitive behavioral psychodrama group therapy (CBPGT) and reality therapy in improving distress tolerance, the primary outcome, among students exhibiting love trauma syndrome (LTS). Methods: A quasi-experimental design, utilizing a pre-test, post-test, and two-month follow-up protocol with a control group, was employed. Forty-five university students in Najafabad with LTS were recruited via convenience sampling and allocated to one of three groups: CBPGT (n = 15), reality therapy (n = 15), or a control group (n = 15). Each experimental group underwent eight weekly 90-minute intervention sessions over 8 weeks, while the control group received no intervention. The Distress Tolerance Scale was utilized to measure the primary outcome. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Findings revealed a statistically significant disparity between the experimental groups (CBPGT and reality therapy) and the control group in multiple facets of distress tolerance: Emotional distress tolerance, susceptibility to negative emotional absorption, cognitive appraisal of distress severity, and the regulatory efficacy of distress-alleviating efforts (P = 0.001; ηp2 ranging from 0.69 to 0.85). Moreover, repeated-measures analyses across the pre-test, post-test, and two-month follow-up assessments corroborated significant within-group improvements in these same distress tolerance components over time (P = 0.001; ηp2 ranging from 0.66 to 0.84). Conclusions: This study demonstrates the significant efficacy of CBPGT and reality therapy in enhancing distress tolerance across multiple dimensions in students with LTS. The results confirmed the temporal stability of these therapeutic gains over a two-month follow-up period, highlighting the robust and persistent nature of the interventions' impact.