The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Anxiety, Physical Symptoms, Worry, and Attention Deficit in Women with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

Background: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) causes a person's life to be full of worries by involving cognitive processes and not tolerating uncertainty and increasing worry and affecting the quality of sleep and attention of these people, and disrupting life functions. Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) on anxiety, physical symptoms, worry, and attention deficits in people with GAD. Methods: It was a quasi‐experimental pre‐test and post‐test study with an experimental group and a control group. In this study, 30 women with GAD were selected using a voluntary sampling method. After matching, participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received CBT for 10 sessions, but the control group did not receive any treatment. The research instruments included the attention skills Questionnaire by Savari and Oraki and the Pennsylvania State Worry Scale. Results: There was a significant difference in physical symptoms in the experimental group compared to the control group (P< 0.01, F = 65.28), while in the experimental group, there was a significant difference in worry compared to the control group. Moreover, there was a significant difference in attention deficit in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The results showed that CBT improved attention deficit and worry in women with GAD.