Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy in Reduction of Worry and Anxiety's Signs and Symptoms in Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Single-Subject Design

According to recent studies, rate of anxiety disorders is high and relatively few of these studies have been focused on generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy (EST (on worry and anxiety's signs and symptoms in patients with GAD.
The present study was conducted in the frame of single subject design. Two patients with generalized anxiety disorder were selected based on generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis by psychiatrist and structured clinical interview (SCID) by clinical psychologist and inclusion and exclusion criteria and they received emotional schema therapy for 10 sessions of 1 hour. Patients were evaluated 7 times during treatment and 2 months follow up by Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Pen State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). Data were analyzed by for trend changes, slope, reviewing of charts; also effect size and percentage of recovery were used to determine the clinical significance.
The data analysis showed that EST is significantly effective in reducing worry and anxiety's signs and symptoms in patients with GAD.
Emotional Schema Therapy could be considered as an effective therapy to psychological interventions for patients with GAD (with caution).