Comparison of The Effectiveness Between Cognitive- Behavior Group Therapy and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy on Females with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of Cognitive- Behavior (CBT) group therapy (Borkovec model) and mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on signs and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and cognitive mediators. An experimental design with control group and random assignment using pre and post-test and a four month follow up was used. The statistical population comprised of women with generalized anxiety disorder who had at least one primary school age daughter in Tehran. Participants’ selection was based on availability. First of all, several primary girl schools were purposefully selected from all primary girl school of Tehran. All mothers were asked to complete the GAD-7 questionnaire. Those mothers who scored above the cut- off point of seven were selected as generalized anxiety disorder (91 women). This was confirmed by a diagnostic structured interview after which participants were asked to take part in the research (32 women). In this research the following measurement tools were used: Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), Pennsylvania State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), Why Worry Scale (WW-II), data were analyzed using repeated measure analyze of variance. Results showed that both CBT and MBCT were effective in reducing GAD signs and symptoms and its cognitive mediators in post- test and follow up. so these two methods were effective in reducing GAD signs and symptoms and its cognitive mediators