Effect of self-help cognitive behavioral intervention on the recovery of patients with generalized anxiety disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the effect of self-help cognitive behavioral intervention on the recovery of patients with generalized anxiety disorder.Methods:A total of 123 patients with generalized anxiety disorder were recruited from a comprehensive hospital in Hunan province. The patients were randomly assigned into control group( n=62) and intervention group( n=61) according to random number table. The patients in the control group were received routine treatment alone, while the patients in the intervention group were received routine treatment and WeChat-based self-help cognitive behavioral therapy. The generalized anxiety disorder(GAD-7), self-rating depression scale(SDS), WHO quality of life scale(WHOQOL-BREF), Pittsburgh sleep quality index(PSQI) and medication adherence scale(MARS) were used to measure the anxiety, depression, quality of life, sleep quality and medication compliance at three time points before intervention (T1), after intervention (T2) and during follow-up (T3). The SPSS 21.0 was used to analyze the data.Mean±standard deviation, frequency and constituent ratio were used to describe the data based on the type of data. Repeated measure ANOVA was used to compare the between-group variation, time effect and interaction effect of two groups at 3 time points. Results:The anxiety score of intervention group at T1, T2, T3 were (12.74± 2.02), (7.13± 1.48), (6.57±1.73) respectively, and the anxiety score of the control group were (12.08±2.11), (11.11±3.27), (10.11±3.33) respectively. Compared with the control group, the score of anxiety in the intervention group was significantly decreased at T2 and T3 ( P<0.05). Compared with control group, the sleep quality and quality of life of intervention group were significantly improved at T2, T3 ( P<0.05), and the medication compliance of the intervention group was significantly improved at T3 ( P<0.05). Conclusion:Self-help cognitive behavioral intervention can decrease anxiety significantly and improve the quality of life, sleep quality, and medication compliance in patients with generalized anxiety disorder.